Make Way For These Baby Shower Favor Ducklings

I just love these little guys!   I had an order for baby shower favors and we chose ducks to go with the story book theme.  The first step, of course, it to make a good sugar cookie dough:

The  Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

From Allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

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 on hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  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.

I mixed up some icing with confectioners sugar and water.  Add a very small amount of water at a time, you will need less than you think to reach your desired thickness.  If you've added too much water just mix in more confectioners sugar.  I don't have exact measurements, I just eye it.  I make it thick enough to outline the cookie to make a border.  I will then fill the bordered area with flood icing, which is thinned out (by adding a few drops of water) thicker icing.  Be careful not to make it too thin, or it will be harder to control and may not stay within the border.  For these cookies I used a squeeze bottle to ice the cookies.  I filled the bottle with icing using a funnel.

Begin outlining the cooled cookies working with three or four cookies at a time.  With these ducks I did not outline the beak, as I wanted to use orange.  Outlining the beak in yellow would just look weird after filling it with orange!

Next, take the flood icing (I used a separate squeeze bottle for the flood icing) and fill in the outlined area of the cookie.  I used a toothpick to spread the icing to the edge of the border.

Let the filled in cookies set for a few hours before beginning the next steps.  I used the border-thick icing to add wings to the ducks.  I added a bit of red gel coloring to the leftover yellow to make a shade of orange, funneled it into a squeeze bottle, and added the beaks. (I took this photo at night so the coloring is off.)

The last step was adding the eyes.  I used edible eyes purchased in the baking section at Michaels craft store.  My date was a bit hectic, so I didn't place the eyes on before the icing set.  So, I had to use icing to "glue" them onto the duck.  With a toothpick I spread a generous amount of icing on the back of the eye and placed it onto the cookie.

Adorable!  The baby is a girl, so I wrapped the cookies in plastic bags and tied them with pink ribbon.  Congratulations to the parents-to-be!!

Cookies for the Cure!

A few days ago I returned from a trip to Napa Valley, California with my husband and I was deprived of something I will never again take for granted:  the internet.  I hadn't realized how dependent I've become on it and how my life is adversely affected when I'm without.  I mean, I survived and all, but I wasn't able to get all of my blogging done and I spent way too much time trying.  And no, it wasn't because I drank too much wine that I had troubles!  Our hotel had the worst "high speed" connection I've ever used.  So, I will be posting my last pink treat for my Breast Cancer Awareness (last) Week today.

My idea was to make pale pink heart sugar cookies with a white chocolate ribbon.  They didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned.  The ribbons were more difficult than I expected.  I need more practice making shapes by piping melted chocolate.  I actually enjoy doing that, so I will come up with more projects to work on to perfect it.

I started by mixing up a sugar cookie dough, rolling it and cutting heart shapes with a cookie cutter.  I baked them for 9 minutes exactly.

While they were baking I mixed together confectioners sugar together with water, drops at a time, until it was the consistency I wanted.  In this instance, I didn't measure anything out.  I added a few drops of red food coloring to make a pale pink.  I wanted to use a squeeze bottle to ice the cookies since I was using one color on the entire cookie.  To pour the icing into the bottle, I used a funnel.  This method works really well.

Once I added the icing, I thought the cookies needed some sparkle, so I sprinkled some hot pink disco dust on them.  In between icing and baking the cookies I melted some white chocolate Merkens chocolate wafers in the microwave.  I placed the chocolate in a piping bag and made the ribbon shape on waxed paper using the same method as the chocolate trees I made for the autumn leaves cupcakes.

Once the ribbons hardened, I carefully peeled them off of the waxed paper and pressed it into the middle of an iced cookie.

So, now October is coming to a close and another month focused on Cancer Awareness will have passed.  I know I am not alone in hoping that we find a cure and October will once again be known primarily for Halloween and the arrival of autumn.  Until that day comes, October will be the month we honor, celebrate, and fight together.