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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Ryan has a Sister!

Yay! Our cutie petutie Ring Bearer Ryan has a little sister! I was so excited when I heard the great news that I began to bake and decorate as soon as we found out the baby was a girl. I was inspired to try out this adorable footprint idea by Callye from The Adventures of Sweet SugarBelle. I only recently discovered her fantastic cookie blog and immediately added it to my favourites!

I added the zest of one lemon to my sugar cookie recipe. (So, all of those marks you see in the dough above are lemon zest...not dirt!)

I bought the cutest mini baby cookie cutters a few weeks ago!  Surprisingly, I found them at a dollar store near my house.  It is hard to see how small they really are in the picture above, but by looking at the picture below, the size is easier to gage.

The mini bottles and onesies would make such cute cupcake toppers.  (But I'll save that idea for a future post!)

Here's the step-by-step of how I made the footprint cookie. First, I piped the border. Next, I flooded it with lemon flavoured royal icing and let it dry overnight. I wanted to compliment the flavour of the cookie so I made lemon royal icing this time. Finally, I piped the footprint and then piped Maryn's name on the right side.

Are these not adorable?

I tried to tie in brown royal icing wherever possible.  I love the combo of pink, white and brown! It reminds me of the cookie seating cards I made for my wedding!

Sugar Cookies with a Twist of Lemon
(Adapted from Cookie Craft)

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla 
zest of 1 lemon

Directions:
1. Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl.
2. Using your mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and lemon zest and mix until well blended.
3. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until the two are thoroughly blended.
4. Turn out dough onto work surface and divide into two or three equal portions. Form each one into a rough disk. Click here for step by step and visuals of how to roll out dough and attain cookies of the same thickness.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. After you have rolled and cut the dough and the cookie shapes are on parchment-lined cookie sheets, bake them in the middle rack of the oven for 12-16 minutes or until the cookies start to turn slightly golden around the edges. (The mini bottles and onesies were baked for about 8 minutes.)
8. Cool cookies completely on a rack before icing or decorating.
Yield
2 1/2-inch cookies--about 30
3 1/2-inch cookies--about 16
4 1/2-inch cookies--about 12

Royal Icing with a Twist of Lemon
(Adapted from Cookie Craft)

4 cups (1 pound) icing sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
7 tablespoons warm water
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:
In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds. Add the lemon juice and mix for 30 seconds more. Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer. Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy. Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying. Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

All packed up and ready to be delivered to Maryn's mommy and daddy.

11 comments:

  1. Hi Melissa! I found your blog through This Kind of Love's site. My best friend is pregnant and we'll be planning her shower within the next month. I'm SO happy I saw this with the baby cookie ideas. Your blog is beautiful. Stop bye when you're free :)

    Love,
    Katie
    http://loveiseverywhere.blogspot.com/

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  2. Thank you for sharing this. I love these cookies.

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  3. Congratulations to Ryan and his family!

    My eldest daughter, age 7, was over the moon at Christmas when she realised that I remembered to put lemon rind into the cookie dough, her personal favourite.

    And I love the mini cookie cutters -- people seem to appreciate the one-biteness of them. I like putting a couple into my kids lunches, not too much, not too little.

    But I never thought of lemoning up my royal icing! There's something I have to rethink ... yummy!

    My local store offers powdered eggs, powdered yolks and powdered egg whites in addition to merigue powder. When my kids were smaller, and helped to roll and cut the cookies, I used the powdered eggs so that I wouldn't be fussed if they ate the cookie dough (the best part!). Recently I've been experimenting with the powdered whites and have preferred the resulting royal icing. I wonder what's the difference between the two products.

    ps. your decorating is beautiful, as always.

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  4. Cute cookies, I'm a fan of Sugarbelle too, especially her camouflage cookies!

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  5. I also highly recommend following Pam at Cookie Crazie, her cookie designs always give me great ideas!

    Here is her link!
    http://cookiecrazie.blogspot.com/

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  6. Your cookies are adorable and your gift basket is beautifully done. I'm sure Maryn's Mom and Dad are tickled pink!

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  7. Super adorable! I'm sure your gift was very appreciated!

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  8. These cookies are absolutely precious! Great job! Love the decorations and the colors, your piping skills are perfect!

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  9. Hi!! I've been reading your blog ever since I saw your most adorable engagement on Bakerella!! These cookies are beautiful! I've also been using your sugar cookie recipe, but I have a question for you. I've been asked to make 125 cookies for a church function that my sister in law is hosting. My question is, how long will the unfrosted cookies keep if I keep them wrapped and tightly sealed? I need to deliver the cookies next sat. and I'm wondering how far in advance I can make the cookies. (The event is on Sun) I'd really appreciate any advise!! Thanks so much!!!

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  10. Hi Jessi,
    It is no problem to make the cookies the week before you need them. Cookies will retain their true freshness for about two weeks. I usually bake the cookies I make 3-5 days before an order because the royal icing used to decorate must be completely dry before wrapping or packaging them.
    Hope this helps,
    Melissa :)

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