Cafe' Hoffy: Decorated Cookies For All Occasions

Decorated Cookies for all Occasions

What's better than a great sugar cookie that's decorated to the tee for special occasions like holidays, birthdays, graduations

and just every day.

In my past life I was a cake decorator. Although I dabble in cake decorating now and again, I find making decorated cookies so much more fun to make. I use a sugar cookie recipe that is the best I have ever found and I have included that recipe on this post. It makes a lot and they are so very tasty.

There are many ways to decorate the cookies. You can flood the cookie with thinner icing that makes them shiny. You can use a little bit thicker icing and then put seasonal sprinkles on the cookies. You can use a buttercream frosting and pipe your decorations on them. There are many ways of finishing off your cookies. You don't have to be a professional to get uwwws and awwws...for your beautiful cookies.

Be sure to check out the videos below.

They show how to make royal icing and how to work

with royal icing.

The recipe for my favorite

Sugar Cookie Recipe and Buttercream Icing

are posted after the videos!

Here are links to companies that carry every cookie

cutter you could think of...just click on the logo...

Here are a few video tutorials on how to work with royal icing on cookies. This icing is very thin, but sets up pretty fast. It is used to make those adorable cookies above.

DIY for decorated cookies

This video is how to make Royal Icing for both piping and flooding...

and finally.... My Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe!
by Jill Saunders

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsps. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

I like to use butter cream frosting on my cookies, thinned out a little. This recipe makes the best buttercream.

Ingredients:

1/2 c. shortening

1/2 c. margarine or butter

4 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla (I use clear vanilla to keep the frosting as white

as it can be)

1/2 tsp. almond extract

milk (add a little at a time to the consistency that you want

Directions:

Beat shortening and margarine until the color is almost white. This will take a few minutes
Add powdered sugar, vanilla, almond extract and about a scant 1/4 cup milk and beat until blended. Add more milk to get to your consistency. Remember a little milk goes a long way. Add milk by tablespoons.

For my watermelon cookies, I used a biscuit cutter to cut the circles and then cut them in half. I then used a star decorating tip to put the frosting on each cookies. The seeds on the watermelon cookies are mini chocolate chips.

Just click for more recipes and crafts from Cafe' Hoffy...