Have you baked, iced, eaten, gifted, or crumbled a sugar cookie today??  It’s National Sugar Cookie Day!  Yea! It’s like Christmas/New Years/ and The 4th of July to all of us cookie bakers and decorators!  I’m so excited about it…..I made and gave cookies away yesterday!  (Photos to be posted this week on a new cookie tutorial).

So…..you have the recipes, go bake some cookies.  Give some away……..It makes you feel so happy!

Really Happy Baking!

Be sure and check out my cookie tutorial “Flying Hearts!”  You’ll find a step by step lesson on how to create beautiful cookies for Valentines Day.

With just over 3 weeks to Valentines Day, now is the time to make and freeze your cookie dough.  You can even bake and freeze un-iced cookies.  This do-a-head will make cookie decorating day go so much faster.

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Idea, what’s wrong with buying a few baked cookies from your local bakery? (Shop from locals whenever you can.)

The best part of cookie making is the decorating!  Make up some fun, bright colors of Royal icing and let the kids decorate!  Round cookies can be the sun, a beach ball, logos, badges, baseballs, soccer balls…..whatever they can think of.  Just let them have fun!  (Sort of like Dec. cookie decorating in the kitchen, what a fun mess)! Pull out all of the holiday sprinkles, jimmies and silver dragees.  What a great way to fill up an afternoon!  Plus you get to eat cookies!

This is a great rain-y day activity for all ages.  Plus it’s fun when it’s too hot to go outside!

A neat idea: If the ‘store bought’ cookies are soft enough, try cutting shapes with your own cookie cutters.  Just be sure and use simple cutter shapes.  Place the cookie on a hard surface, (cutting board works great) place the cutter on the cookie and press.  Cut all the way through the cookie.  Heart, square and round cookie cutter seem to work best.  You can even use a mini cookie cutter to cut out the center of the  baked cookie for a ‘fun look’.  Decorate cookie as usual.

Happy Baking!

  I love the 4th of July!  Fireworks and picnics, get out the lawn chairs and wait ….(what seems like forever) for the fireworks to begin. 

This year I am going  to fireworks celebrations Fri. and Sat. (maybe even Sun. somewhere?)  Can’t wait for that first ear-shattering……BOOM!  Then it begins!  Sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes 1 hour of “open your eyes and turn on the party lights in the sky“.

One of my very favorite July 4th  memories is a yearly party with the Swemm family.  Kerrie Swemm was my very dear childhood friend and our families would meet near the American Legion Post in my hometown of Danville.  There was always wonderful picnic food; grilled hotdogs, red potato salad and  garden fresh tomatoes from my dads garden.  Then there were the desserts!   On one end of the food table lay a massive amount of all things sweet and tasty.  I remember the pies; berry, apple and lemon.  Also, my moms famous blond brownies and a sheet cake iced with homemade buttercream iced to look like the flag; red, white and blue.   Then there were the cookies!  Chocolate chip, molasses and ginger, peanut butter, and of course sugar cookies.  I helped make the sugar cookies. (go figure?)  My job was to sprinkle red or blue sparkling sugar onto the cut out cookies.  Then my mom would pop them into the oven and we would wait.  12 minute later………joy and happiness!  Cookies!  We could each have just one cookie before the picnic. Guess which one I wanted?

I remember all of this like it was last week……….can it really be over 30 years ago?  My mom no longer bakes so I carry on the cookie tradition for her.  So here’s to you mom (and dad).  Happy 4thof July!  Enjoy the fireworks tomorrow! I love you both!

Happy Baking!

To get started, you will need:

• Baked and cooled polar bear sugar cookie shapes. 
• Medium thick royal icing in white and dark blue
• Thick royal icing in black

Step 1.   Outline and flood the polar bear with the medium thick white icing. Cover the whole cookie.

Cozy Polar Bear Cookie Decorating Tutorial - Step 1

Step 2: Immediately sprinkle wet icing with tiny white non-pareils. Note: if you don’t get the edges of the icing covered with the  non-pareils, try gently dipping the edge of the cookie into the bowl of non-pareils.  Use a spoon to help attached them to the wet icing. Let cookie dry 2 hours. 

Cozy Polar Bear Cookie Decorating Tutorial - Step 2

Step 3: Add the ‘ear and eyes and nose” with black icing to the cookie.  Add the rear leg in black icing.  Let dry 2 hours. 

Cozy Polar Bear Cookie Decorating Tutorial - Step 4

Step 4: Add “fuzzy scarf” by piping blue medium thick icing on the bears neck.  Immediately sprinkle with white sanding sugar.  Shake off excess sugar.  Let cookie dry 2 hours or overnight. You’re done!

Cozy Polar Bear Cookie Decorating Tutorial - Step 4

Tips: Package cookie in clear cellophane bags tied with raffia.  This is a nice cookie to include with a coffee mug and a pack of hot coca mix.  Yumm! 

Happy Baking!

Cathy