Less Than Three...

I am a glutton for punishment. As it turns out, I was correct in my prediction that the tediousness of cookie decorating would turn out to be like the pain of childbirth -- I soon found myself wanting to do it again. It all started when Sur La Table had it's annual sale, and I found myself picking up a truly ridiculous number of 56 cent cookie cutters. (Seriously, that store is possibly the most dangerous threat to my credit card in existence; it's a good thing they only have sales once a year!) With a bounty of new shapes at my disposal, I found myself looking for a proper occasion for baking, and finally settled upon Mom's current trip down to White Hall to visit the family.

Back in December, when I had assembled the yearly Cookie Bonanza, I delivered a box of cookies to my cousin, Aimee, who was a brand new mother at the time. Little did I know that I would generate a maelstrom of family tension by not gifting all of my cousins with baked goods -- Aimee's sister Trista, one of my loyal readers, felt slighted that her diligent blog readership was not rewarded by cookies. I decided to bake a Valentine's-themed batch for her February birthday and send them down with Mom. Next thing I knew, my cousin Danielle was feeling excluded, as she had received neither birthday nor Christmas cookies. I considered sending no cookies at all to alleviate the tension, but I had already made the cookie dough, so I opted to send them anyway and let anyone have them who was willing to drive to Grandma's and pick them up. Whoever the ultimate recipient of this bounty is, I hope you enjoy them! At the very least, I hope they don't end up sitting at Grandma's house uneaten...

I dedicated most of my weekend to the cookie-decorating project. This time, however, I invited Lauren over to keep me company while doing the final stages of piping work. I whipped up a double batch of royal icing and let her bring her own cookies to decorate, which made for a pleasant, relaxing afternoon.

Overall, I think I'm experiencing a positive learning curve in my cookie decorating odyssey. I was able to achieve a better consistency for most of my piping and flood icing, and I was largely pleased with the outcome of my cookies.

The only problem I experienced was an insane surplus of icing. When I had decorated my Christmas cookies, I ran out of icing, so with Lauren coming over to decorate cookies as well, I thought a double batch of royal icing would be in order. However, for some reason I ended up with more than enough icing to decorate an entire new batch of cookies. I hated to throw it away, so I whipped up more cookies, this time to take to the office. This time, I took a risk and deviated from my tried-and-true Alton Brown sugar cookie recipe, and attempted another recipe from Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats To Bake and Share for Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies. While they didn't have quite the hit of cocoa that I usually look for in my cookies and brownies, they baked up beautifully and were a nice change of pace. I didn't get as elaborate in my decorating with them, but they were still a huge hit at the office.

Hopefully, they will go over just as well at Dad's office. In two weeks, his firm is having a charity bakesale, for which I have committed to make another batch of cookies. If they sell well, it might be time to start taking commissions. After all, with the stockpile of cookie cutters I'm sitting on now, I can handle pretty much every occasion from baby showers, to weddings, and themed birthday parties. Something to consider...