Welcome Baby Cookie Bouquet

Thank you for all your sweet comments about my Christmas Cookie Bouquet that I blogged about here. I got a ton of emails asking me for the recipes I used, so I decided to do another post that included those. I think I might be a tad obsessed with these cookie bouquets, so I don't mind at all :)

I made this one for my friend who just had a baby girl. I decided to do a couple of flowers, a little girl and a "V" for her initial.

The V has pale yellow polka dots on it, and the little girl is wearing a dress with a "V" monogram on it... love it!

Enough gushing about my the latest bouquet... here are the recipes.

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups margarine or butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

4 1/2 cups flour

In a medium sized bowl combine margarine or butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs and mix well. Add flavorings and mix well again. Add salt and baking soda and 1/2 of the flour. Mix on low speed until well blended. Add remaining flour and mix until well blended. Check dough for stickiness. If it sticks to your fingers, add another 1/4 cup of flour. Depending on the moisture content of the margarine or butter, you may need up to 1/2 cup more of flour to get a dough that is smooth and not sticky. Refrigerate dough for one hour.

Preheat oven t0 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll out dough and cut using your favorite cutters. Bake time will depend on the size of the cookies. The ones above took 8 minutes.

Royal Icing

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons meringue powder
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
5 -6 tablespoons lukewarm water

Mix ingredients together and beat on medium speed for 7-10 minutes or until the mixture becomes matte.

To frost cookies like the ones above you will need to thin this icing. Do this by adding 1/2 a teaspoon at a time and mixing very well in between each addition. You'll know when it's ready when you drip a bit of the mixture into the same bowl and the outlines disappear by the time you count to 1o. Rather than making two different consistencies, like some recommend, I prefer to quickly do the outline and then flood the entire cookie with the same icing. I use plastic bottles with tips rather than pastry bags for easier clean up.

Let me know if there is interest for a full tutorial on how to make a cookie bouquet from start to finish!

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