It could have been the yummy flavor, the scraggly homemade cuteness or the cold beer that made these star cookies fly off the platters at Shane’s Fourth of July birthday BBQ.
The icing in particular was really tasty …I guess that’s the secret of starting with a stick of real butter.
Ingredients:
Cookies
- Sugar cookie mix, eggs and vegetable oil (or make Elise’s homemade sugar cookie dough)
- Flour
Icing
- 1 box (1 lb.) confectioners sugar
- 1/3 cup softened butter
- Up to 1/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Gel food coloring in various colors
(so fun)
Supplies:
- Star cookie cutters, four sizes
- Colored sprinkles (try Red, White and Blue Jimmies Sprinkles
, animals & stars
, Christmas
, Easter
, flowers
)
- Rolling pin
- Plastic wrap
- Toothpicks
- Cutting board
for rolling
- Parchment paper or silicon baking mat
- Small bowls
, one for each of your icing colors
- Small white square platter
and Large white square platter
- Wire cooling rack
Make sugar cookies according to package directions. Roll into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for a bit.
Once it’s chilled, roll out the cookie dough 1/4 inch thin using a healthy bit of flour on your board. Cut out various sizes of stars. Continue to roll and cut, flouring when you need to and returning the dough to the refrigerator if it gets too mushy.
Put on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or silicon baking mats. Bake according to cookie package directions. Be careful on your timing …if they brown too much they’ll be hard as bricks. Best to slip baked cookies off the sheets and onto wire cooling racks or paper towels to avoid overbaking.
Make your icing. Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla together. Add the water/milk a little bit at a time, stirring completely, until you reach the consistency you want. If you add too much liquid then add more sugar. Separate into several small bowls, one for each icing color, and add a little bit of gel icing using a clean toothpick. Ice and sprinkle away on paper towels for easy cleanup.
I made a some cute double-decker cookies by sticking small iced stars on top of larger stars before the icing set. Big hit.
Store in airtight containers until party time. Place on platters and serve.
Merriment :: Kathy Beymer
Saturday 2nd of August 2008
Hi Jenni, what a small world! I love meeting other crafters and I'd really like to see your paper crafts, so let me know if you'd let me feature any and then link to your site when it's ready. Good news is my camera is nice without being crazy fancy ...it's a Canon PowerShot SD630 6MP Digital Elph Camera. If you have kids you will love this camera. It is tiny and can take videos too. I bought a 2GB Memory Card which means I can hold a ton of photos and videos before I have to download. I wasn't super big into photos and videos before I got this camera but it just makes it fun. I want to take photos of everything. There are new models out there too: canon powershot digital camera. The key is using the Digital Macro setting (the setting of the "D" in the flower). Then you can zoom super close and get detail. My friend Heather showed me this when we were on a snowy Wisconsin ladies' cabin trip. Fell in love. Bought the camera. Also, I try to turn off the automatic flash most of the time. I find that photos of what I make looks better in the natural light, especially in the early morning. However, my in-process photos are often at night after work so then I have to use the flash. Hope this helps. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.
Jenni
Friday 18th of July 2008
Kathy, I came across your website a while back (not knowing then that we had a mutual friend in common, Patrick Horton) It wasnt until I was clicking around on your site that I saw your "press" and remembered your wedding blog Pat had sent me (after you posted his pic :) I loved the wedding blog and saved it to show a friend of mine who was getting married. I guess it is a small world after all..... :) You have so many fantastic ideas and I love your photographs so much that I had to ask if you have any tips on photographing your crafts. I am an avid "paper crafter" (cards, scrapbooks, bookmarks and the list goes on) and have wanted to put up a blog of my creations but my photos just dont have that pizzazz yours have. If you have any tips (that dont include buying a $3000 camera) I would love to hear your suggestions. I have used some of your ideas (the phone book wrapping paper, your smores inspired a "camp in" night with the kids, cant wait to try the chalkboard ideas, your pillows make me want to learn to sew :) and the high school themed party... well I think you might be a genius. I always look forward to what is coming next. Thanks ahead of time for any photographing tips you want to share. Happy Friday! Jenni Vitacco