Treat Duty

I always try to make something special for the treats I send to school with the girls for their birthdays and class parties. Because of that, I could probably have an entire series on "Pinterest Fails"!

I suppose it's not so much that Pinterest fails, but that I don't follow instructions...I make them up as I go! For Kamryn's 4th Birthday, I thought I would make my version of "cake pops" - literally cake on a stick. I don't remember the process exactly. I do know it involved pouring watered down, melted frosting all over the cake pieces, and when I realized that wasn't actually going to coat the cake, but rather soak into the cake, I decided to dunk the cake in candy coating, and put a stick in each piece. See - cake pop. NOT so much. The cake was too big for the sticks, and I hadn't considered how a teeny tiny 4-year old would carry all of those ridiculous "cake pops" to school by herself. Fortunately, the high school gal who lived across the street from daycare (who also happened to help with the kids, too) was able to bring the absurd cake pops to the school for Kamryn. Another fortunate thing - the cake pops tasted much better than they looked!

Well, a few years have gone by since then, and I've learned nothing. Whatever could I mean? Let's find out!

With Kamryn's help, I decided to make frosted sugar cookies for both girls' Christmas parties at school this week. Seems simple enough, right?

I decided this would be a two night affair. At least I had that right!

Night 1 - Bake the cookies.

I chose to use Martha Stewart's Giant Sugar Cookie recipe. (Even though Martha Stewart is a convicted felon, I still love her. I talk about her to the girls so much that they probably think I've met her and/or she's a mythical creature. She's definitely "Lindsey Robinson Approved"!)

This is my all-time favorite sugar cookie! It's a drop cookie - so no rolling is required, and they aren't super hard and crunchy or really dense/cakey like the sugar cookies you traditionally think of (There's nothing wrong with those cookies! I just LOVE these.). Their texture is similar to an oatmeal or chocolate chip cookie. They're sugary, buttery, and chewy and crunchy at the same time. The best! I made two slight modifications: I added Almond Extract to the dough in addition to the Vanilla Extract. I love the flavor of Almond Extract! The other modification I made was to make the cookies only two tablespoons big instead of three. Partly because I didn't think it was necessary for the littles to have GIANT sugar cookies (I wasn't the only one bringing treats), and partly because I didn't feel like making three batches of cookies! Lazy is as lazy does!

I'm not sure that this is a result of me being lazy, but despite my love for baking, I am not able to bake as much as I'd like. So I was happy to have a reason to use my KitchenAid Stand mixer. :) It was my Mother's Day gift this year, and I was so excited to receive it! I wanted one for EVER, but could never bring myself to spend the money on one or ask for one. Jake did a great job picking out a white one, too - it matches our kitchen! KitchenAid Stand Mixer = 👍!

Kamryn was eager to use the mixer, too, so I had to explain to her about kitchen safety. (Have you watched Freaks and Geeks? The father always ends his life lessons with, "And do you know what happened to him? He died!". Well, I remind myself of him in a way.) "Kamryn, you have to make sure to keep your hands away from the mixer." "Why? What will happen?" "You'll break your hand." Did Kamryn fearfully run out of the kitchen in tears? Yep. But she also returned much more cautious. Safety first!

Watch your fingers!

So we baked the cookies with relative ease. No limbs were injured! ;) And while Kamryn was learning about how to stay safe and measure flour, I was learning that my darker cookie sheet gets too hot and causes the cookies to spread too much. Oops.

(Kamryn rolling the cookies, the nicely baked cookies, and the dark sheet cookies...hmm..)

Day 2 - Frost the cookies

So....my plans changed, because they always do, and I had to stay home with Kamryn who was now sick (and no, it had nothing to do with the cookies!). But because I was home, I was able to frost the cookies during the day (and by able, I mean, I had time - not ability)...and it was a good thing that I started this task early.

I used this Royal Icing recipe from "Tips from a Typical Mom Blog" because it was eggless - no meringue powder or egg whites. It also called for Almond Extract (which you already know I love). She said this frosting tasted good, and would harden enough so you could stack the cookies, and so I trusted her. On a side note - frosting is the reason I eat cake as frosting is the reason cake was invented. ;)

The recipe made the teeniest bit of frosting so I had to triple this recipe...twice...and I had to thin it down quite a bit just to pipe the border, which I was not very good at piping. And then I had to thin it even more to fill the cookies...another thing I wasn't very good at. Apparently going into this whole event, Kam and I must have watched one too many episodes of the Baking Championships on the Food Network...we were MUCH too confident...

I had such a mess everywhere. The frosting was like a (delicious) glue. And it covered everything. Toothpicks stuck to my fingers...powdered sugar on the floor. Just messy...and I was panicked during the whole process. But somehow, most of the cookies turned out okay.

(Not horrible....)

Some didn't turn out okay!

The Rejects

So the cookies sat out on the counter for HOURS, and I thought "Surely, these are ready to be packaged." The frosting seemed firm to the touch...so I started stacking them between wax paper, and a few minutes later, I realized "These are NOT ready to be stacked." And as I tried to remove the cookies and wax paper from the box, I pulled the frosting off some of the cookies......"Mother of Pearl. You've got to be kidding me!". No one was kidding.

But it wasn't as dire as I thought. NOT all of the cookies were "ruined". It still made me shake my head though. Another botched attempt. Sorry. No picture of this sad affair. I couldn't bear to document it.

The cookies remained on the counter overnight, and by morning, the frosting had set enough to package up for the girls to take to school. I have no idea how it all turned out once the girls arrived to school and when the teachers had to hand out the treats...the cookies very well could have all been stuck together. Ha!

Overall, the cookies treated great. The execution - not so much. Oh well, another chapter in delicious "Pinterest Fails"!