I would definitely say that I am more guy than girl. Oh sure I own frilly clothing from Anthropologie and I know how to bat my eyes while gently pressing my boobs together with my arms to get a free beer but overall I would have to say that I relate and tend to act more like a guy. I am after all a beer drinking hockey player.
I would much rather watch sports than make a scrapbook (that incudes golf if those were my two options). I choose beer over wine. I think bacon can be a meal on its own. I do the t-shirt smell test and if it smells alright, then we are good to go. I have a mini fridge in my living room. There is clothing right now in a pile somewhere in the apartment, as well as a wet towel on the floor (don’t worry I will pick it up eventually). And I suck at following directions, of course until I get to the point of realizing I screwed up. 😛
Case in point these cookies. Yes, those are cookies, not cupcakes. I actually made them to prove a point publically and boy did I. I get quite a few local people asking me to decorate a cake, cookie favors, cake pops, etc…for them, their child, dinner parties, etc. When I tell them I am not good at that they don’t believe me. I am a good baker, I am not a good decorator. And no offense to those in the industry but most of the people I know that are wonderful cake decorators usually have an art/design background. They don’t have any sort of pastry background and many of them don’t make the cakes, they hire out…I know, I have been the hire out. 🙂 Same with the cookie people. They excel at decorating, they make super cute and amazing stuff but most of them aren’t going to make you sourdough from scratch. Anyway, I saw these cookies and said why yes! My friend has a birthday coming up and I thought these would be super fun. So I decided to make a test run.
Except I didn’t really follow directions. I saw the pictures I saw royal icing and just started to go for it. The one thing I do love about finding these, was the recipe for sugar cookies. Is it the best for taste, not so much, BUT the dough does not have to be refrigerated and you can just roll and bake. It’s great. They hold their shape well too. I didn’t follow the directions on how thick they should be. Oops. I didn’t follow directions when it said that I should let them set up for 4-5 hours (when icing the parts together). I didn’t notice I was supposed to make flood icing. Oops. Directions? Who needs them. Apparently I do. 😛
If you compare how they should look with what I ended up with you can clearly see that I win my I suck at decorating argument. I won’t be making these for my birthday. Don’t get me wrong I think they are an adorable idea. I don’t know why I all of a sudden thought I would be able to do this. Don’t worry I won’t give up on trying to get better at it…I just am apparently on the 17 year plan. 😀
I will give the cookie dough recipe, but truthfully, it’s best just to link the step by step guide from Sweet Sugar Belle’s direct site. If you want to see a 4th of July version, go here!
Basic Sugar Cookie Dough
1 cup{two sticks} of REAL unsalted BUTTER, at room temperature
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
2-3 tsp flavoring {pick what you like, I prefer almond}
2 1/2-2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar. Crack the egg into a separate bowl, and add the flavoring. I use emulsions, but extract also works well. Add that to the butter sugar mixture and mix until the egg is thoroughly incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add little by little to the mixture.
I can tell the dough is ready when most of it sticks to the paddle.
When I touch it, it has a little give, but does not stick to my fingers.
Roll out on parchment to about 1/4 an inch thick, use flour for dusting as necessary. Then, cut and bake at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes. This version makes 2-2 1/2 dozen, doubled, it makes 4-5 dozen.
Recipe from Sweet Sugar Belle
Rosa says
Wonderful cookies! Basic recipes always come in handy.
Cheers,
Rosa
Blog is the New Black says
Great job! 🙂
VeggieGirl says
I’m bad with directions; and I’m loving those cupcake cookies 🙂 I think they look great, but what do I know, haha.
Heather of Kitchen Concoctions says
I saw the patriotic version of these yesterday and thought they were so cute and unique. But I too have no patience to read the instructions for these let alone assemble. Ha! The whole cake decorating in general requires too much patience for me!
kita says
Im the tom boy of my group – I’m pretty sure it’s a physical impossibility for me to wear a dress properly. Jeans every time.
And I’m notorious for not reading through directions before starting out on a project.
I bet these still taste awesome!
Sinful Southern Sweets says
LOL! I don’t know…I really like your version. Screw the directions!
Peabody says
@Sinful Southern Sweets…aw thanks. 🙂
Amanda says
I am with you on the decorating thing. In my perfect decorating world everything would taste perfect with either powdered sugar sprinkled on top or a glaze.
I think these look delicious!
Megan says
I like it! And I totally agree with you on the baking/decorating thing.
Zazzy says
I think they’re pretty – and sugar cookies are just a vehicle for frosting anyway!
Becca says
It looks a little messy, yes, but it looks like it tastes great! Nice ‘n sugary 😀
And you’re deffinately not the only one that fails at decorating. I like the idea of making something look really nice, but I don’t have the pacience for it, and when I rarely do, it ends up looking like crap because I have no artistic eye 😛
Lauren at Keep It Sweet says
I want to eat that dripping icing!
SarahK says
i like the basic cookie recipe, but i’m kind of an instant gratification kind of gal when it comes to baking…i don’t have time/patience to wait hours upon hours for cookies to set up and dry. plus, i would probably eat them all before the icing was set. ;P
Jovian says
I’ll be honest, and say that I prefer a toothsome dessert than a pretty one. People will only come back for one of those!
Tracey C. says
Ha! I came in from the other direction – started out making stuff that tasted great, and then learned (slowly) over time (we’re talking 20 years here) how to make it look nice as well. Helps that I will happily spend hours doing fussy stuff as long as it’s food-related (but will I file my bills? Only if “this year’s stuff is in this box” counts as filing.)
Rebecca says
Those look tasty enough to me! 😀
Nicole says
They look really good with all that dripping icing. I want to try flooding icing, but in the end I am lazy and never do it.
Lynn says
I’m so with you on this one! I can make tasty food, but beautiful? Um, not so much. I figure that people would rather enjoy something delicious than eat something nasty that looked good.
Adam says
I am absolutely horrendous at decorating anything (I also don’t have a lot of the best tools for it). This is in stark contrast to my aunt who could be a professional cake decorator if she wanted to (she’s also a good baker). It’s always amusing when family events come up and she has her pristine, perfectly iced or air brused cakes or cupcakes, and I have the equivalent of a hunk of baked dough :)… At least it tastes good :).
Dana says
Great photos in this post!