Cookie Art

I used to make a large variety of Christmas cookies, sometimes sharing a "baking day" with Len's sister. The past few years have been less productive, but the ONE cookie my family MUST have is gingerbread. I mix, roll, cut, and bake as I can fit it into my life, and then we decorate later.

We decorate with icing and sprinkles, which look great against the dark cookies. I grew up decorating sugar cookies with egg yolk paint before baking, but I find it tiresome to roll, cut, decorate, AND bake all at once. Besides, the sweet (store bought) icing contrasts nicely with the spicy gingerbread.

Why am I writing about this in May? For Marianna's tea party last week, we used cookies as the craft and favor. We made the cookies a few days ahead and stored them at room temperature.

I set up the island with waxed paper work stations, piles of cookies, bags of icing (pint size freezer bags with a hole snipped in a corner), and LOTS of sprinkles and colored sugar.As the girls arrived, they donned aprons over their party dresses and set to work.

This was definitely NOT one of those "less is more" occasions!

We left the cookies out so the icing could dry during the party. Or, it would have dried if it had not been applied quite so thickly...

As the girls left, we piled the cookies into cute little buckets I bought after Easter. I'm not usually so coordinated (matching paper, elegant tag, etc.)--can you tell I had fun planning this event?