Decorating Cookies

Yesterday I mentioned that I was baking the first batch of cookies for the holiday season.  The cookies were basic sugar cookies (one of my personal favorites), I opted to make cut out cookies instead of the easier drop ones.  That's something I haven't done in quite a while, either, so somewhere along the line, I'd misplaced my memory of how much fun those are to make.

In all our culling of Christmas-related items, I didn't touch my cookie cutters.  Even though Rebecca has quite a few, there are still enough Christmas ones left with which to have fun.  I even found the plastic one that I used to make the felt teddy bear I showed you in an earlier blog.  Anyway, yesterday I made reindeer, little gingerbread-style boys, stars, and trees.  Then I designed a two-for-one cookie.  Decorated one way, it was Santa in a sleigh.  Decorated another, it was two women in a pink convertible! 

Mind you, it wasn't planned (don't I wish I were that clever), but when David looked at the undecorated cookies, he said, "I know what that one is; it's Santa."  Now, afterwords he said he didn't see Santa as I had, but he put the idea in my mind.  Collaboration is a great thing!

Actually what I wanted to tell you about is what I used to decorate the cookies.  Yesterday was the first time I used this product so my work is a little rough around the edges, but did I have fun!  I used Betty Crocker's "Cookie Icing" that comes in a pouch, and no, I'm not being paid to say this.  I know you're thinking that you prefer to make your own ,and you don't want all the additives.  I understand that.  But unless you're willing to work with royal icing, you really should at least try this product.  Here's why.  First, it comes in a kneadable pouch with a tip so you don't have to have the extra icing bags and tips.  Where you cut the tip determines how thick or thin a line you can make.  Second, it comes in a lot of colors including black (!) though I haven't found yellow, yet.  Third, and here's the clincher for me, the frosting hardens!  That means you can take a plate loaded of decorated cookies to a friend's house, and the frosting on the bottom cookies stays on the cookies without smudging all over!  Fourth and finally, it tastes like frosting.

What's the drawback?  I don't know how easy it may be for children to use because it requires steady pressure to get a good line, and it takes a bit of strength to do that.  I'd like to try it with my grandson and see how he does with it.  For him, I think I'd snip the tip of the pouch so he'd have a wider opening for the frosting to come out, and he could "paint" a larger area.  Today I'm making cookies in the shape of turtles for him.  It should be lots of fun!