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.