St Patrick's Day Cookies

What do you do on St. Patrick's Day?

Do you drink green beer? 

How about eat green cookies?

These shamrock cookies are simple to make and are super cute for any St. Patty's Day get together.

 

To make these cookies, follow my favourite sugar cookie recipe. Use the cookie cutter seen below which can be purchased at Crate and Barrel.

This cookie cutter is quite large so make sure you make enough dough for the number of cookies you wish to have.  I made about 25 cookies by doubling the recipe.

While the cookies are cooling, prepare the royal icing.

I used Kelly Green and Rose to add color to the cookies.

Pipe...

...then flood.

Letting the cookies dry overnight is typically what I do before adding a message on top.

Since these cookies were ordered for a bridal shower, the name of the couple was written on top of each cookie.

I used Clear Drop Flat bags that I purchased at Creative Bag to package each cookie.

Congrats Jaimie and Adrian.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Cupcakes with Mini Cookie Toppers

Congratulations to one of my oldest and best friends Joelle, on the birth of her second baby boy! I brought these cupcakes to Issie's bris this summer. Issie is Rowan's brother. Remember when I made these cookies for Rowan's first birthday? They were yummy!

But back to the cupcakes I made to celebrate Issie's birth....To make these cupcakes, I used my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe.  You already know how much I like the Ghirardelli one!

I used Wilton colors to colour this icing blue, although it does look a little turquoise, doesn't it?

After piping the buttercream icing onto each cupcake, I added a cute little sugar cookie on an angle. As soon as I bought these mini baby cutters (from a dollar store near my house!) I knew that they would be the perfect size to use as cupcake toppers. I also used these cutters when I made these cookies! 

I loved the colors! And the sweetness of the icing, the cookies and the cake...Milk please!

Yes, I am holding baby Issie.  He is soooooo cute! Just look at his tiny toes and feet!

Mazel tov Joelle and Adam!

Doctor Bag Cookies

I made these cookies for a recent graduate.  Can you tell that he is now a doctor?! I tried to make different looking doctor cookies than these cookies.

I searched online for different images of doctor bags.  This is the one that my design was based on.

To make these cookies, I used my favourite sugar cookie recipe and a square cookie cutter. Before baking, I added a lollipop stick to each cookie to make each one into a cookie pop. To make the doctor bag on top of the royal icing, I used an edible pen to draw the image onto the cookie like I did here. Then, I traced over it with black royal icing.  

Finally, I used an edible ink pen to write Dr. Daniel Abramowitz below each doctor bag.

Each cookie was individually wrapped.

Congrats Dr. Abramowitz!

Cookie Pops for a Baby Naming

A few months ago, I made cookie pops for center pieces for a baby naming. The cookie pops served a dual purpose; Not only were they focal point at each table, they were also given to the guests at the end of the party. Talk about practical!

I'm sure you have figured out by now that the baby girl's name is Jenna! To make the letters in her name I used the same technique as I did here, using parchment paper and a chosen font from Microsoft Word. The font that I used was Curlz MT. This time, I used royal icing to make the letters. This meant that I had to make extras since they were quite fragile. To make the dark purple letters above, I immediately sprinkled the royal icing letters with purple sugar crystals and let them dry overnight. Had I only done the same for the pink and light purple letters...

But I didn't...The method that I used for the cookies above was a little more time consuming. Once the pink letters dried overnight, I gently removed them from the parchment paper. After flooding the cookies with purple royal icing, I placed each letter in the center of a cookie. The cookies needed to dry completely overnight before adding any sugar. The next day, I retraced the letters with a little more royal icing and added white sugar crystals. It was helpful to lay the cookies on a piece of wax/parchment paper.  This way, the excess sugar can be poured back into a bowl to be used to add sugar to the next set of cookies.

Here's a side profile!

Making cookie pops is quite simple. The way that has worked best for me is simply sticking the lollipop stick about halfway into the raw cookie dough after it has been cut and placed onto a parchment lined cookie sheet that is ready for baking. The cookies are baked with sticks in them at the same temperature as regular cookies. Above, are the three different combinations of cookie pops that I made for the center pieces.

I used both longer and shorter lollipop sticks.

I think they turned out pretty cute!

A fun and original center piece.

For my sugar cookie recipe, click here.

For the recipe that I use to make royal icing, click here.

Congratulations to Jenna's family!

Cookies for a Lawyer

I continue to have such original requests from one customer who has lawyers and doctors to congratulate!  Isn't that exciting?  This order was from the same lady who ordered Scrubs for a Doctor cookies. Remember those? 

The challenging part of making these cookies was finding a design that could be made without using a Kopykake projector, since I do not own one...yet! And, finding an original design that fit the request. In the end, I made two different cookies: one with a gavel and another with a scale of justice.

These are the images I used for each cookie.

For the cookies with the gavels on them, I first  piped and flooded each sugar cookie with green royal icing.

Then, I used Wilton Food Writer Edible Color pens to add the details.

For the scale of justice cookies I followed the same steps but piped and flooded white royal icing.

 

Then used a blue edible marker to add the details.

Then I packaged up the cookies and they were ready to be delivered.

Congratulations Mark!

Ryan in the Kitchen - Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes...these really are kosher for Passover! Don't they look good?

Of course they do, because my partner in crime helped me make them!

He began by helping me crack the eggs. First, we tapped the egg on the counter.  Then, cracked it in half into a mug. Finally, Ryan poured it into the mixing bowl. He loved watching the mixer combine all of the ingredients and found it very funny that he could see his reflection in the bowl.

Once all of the ingredients were mixed together, he poured in the chocolate chips.

Time to fold them in!

After the dough chilled in the fridge for an hour, (and Ryan went home) I continued to make the cookies.  Since they expand ever so slightly, if you use this recipe, it is important to flatten out the cookies before baking.

They looked and tasted delicious.

To add even more sweetness, try drizzling some melted white chocolate overtop.

Jewish Holiday Baking by Marci Goldman is a cookbook that I bought a few months ago. She has a number of yummy desserts for Passover in this book as well as for many other Jewish holidays. The recipe for these cookies can be found in this book.

Here is her recipe for Crisp and Chewy Chocolate Chip CookiesMakes 4-5 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon Passover vanilla sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup matzoh cake meal

1 cup potato starch

2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, cream all three sugars with the butter or margarine. Blend in the eggs. Stir in the salt, matzoh cake meal and potato starch. Fold in the chocolate chips. Chill the dough for 1 hour or overnight for chewy style cookies; (I made these ones!) do not chill for thin and crisp cookies. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out generous teaspoonfuls of dough. Place on the baking sheet leaving room for the cookies to spread. If using cold dough, press a little; if using fresh dough (not chilled), do not press down.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Let cool. Use a spatula to remove from baking tray. Enjoy!

For more Passover dessert ideas click on the links below:

Matza Crunch

Frozen Lemon Dessert Passover Style

Sponge Cake

Meringues

Have a happy Passover!

Monogrammed Baby Cookies

A is for Audrey! Our friends Jeff and Julia gave birth to a baby girl named Audrey a few weeks ago.  I tried something new by adding a monogram of the letter A on top of flooded royal icing. 

To make all of the letters as uniform as possible, I printed a sheet of letter A's from the computer and traced them onto parchment paper using Wilton (chocolate) Candy Melts. Royal icing can also be used for the same purpose.

The letters took not even 5 minutes to dry.  As you can see above, they peel off very easily from the parchment paper.

Once the cookies dried, the letter A was added by using some royal icing as glue.  For the recipe that I use to make royal icing, click here.

Had I been a little more organized, I would have applied the letters to the cookies while the icing was still wet. 

Both ways will work, but the second way is a little more efficient and will allow for the letter to adhere to the cookie more securely.

We are so glad to have a little girl in our "crew."

Congrats, Jeff and Julia!

For my favourite sugar cookie recipe, click here.