Friday, December 8, 2017

Penguin Cookies

 OMG I can't handle how cute these little babies turned out.!!!! 🐧I LOVE them.!!!! I got the recipe that I followed and the idea from Food Network. Not that I haven't aspired to make penguin shaped cookies one day, but I probably wouldn't have thought to make them slice and bake. It's not a difficult recipe, but it does take some time to shape the different components and wait for the dough to be firm enough to cut. I think if I made these again, I would add nutmeg or some almond extract- my go to flavors for sugar cookies. I was more concerned with how they looked than jazzing up the flavors.
Cutting out the penguins really looked like I was making sushi roll cookies. That would be a fun variation.! I made the beak and feet a little oversized for next level adorableness. 
 Here they are cooling, waiting to be adorned for the Christmas party. 🎄
 I didn't have red candy melts, and white chocolate can be super finicky, especially when you buy the cheap not amazing quality hence the cheapness level variety. You have to be careful not to overheat it, or it turns into an unusable mess. You'll know when it happens. Then it's too late. Anyways, don't overheat! I added red food gel to some of the white chocolate that I already had, and had to add some oil too since, as stated previously, my chocolate was not great to begin with, and did not melt ideally. Halved mini marshmallows formed the poofy "pom-pom" on each penguins little hat.
I mainly piped white chocolate designs on the hats, but also used some edible sugar pearls and little chocolate decorating bits that I already had. I also discovered the I thought the penguins were even cuter with discernible eyeballs. At first, I was trying to hide the dot of white chocolate that I used to "glue" the mini-chocolate chip pupil on. I think having crazier bug eyes just made them even more adorable though, so there's a tip for ya. Next time I make these, they'll have bigger eyes, and I'll add some nutmeg to the dough. Overall, a cute idea and a pretty simple recipe.!





Turkey Cookies II

I've really been slipping on my cake making...but I have been so busy with grad school and multiple jobs, and my current kitchen is tiny with a questionable oven...so I've been opting for creating cookies lately. I love to think of crafty, fun activities to do with my nephew- I usually enjoy them for much longer than his attention span 😄 This Thanksgiving it was turkey cookies for us!


 We made peanut butter cookies for the base of the cookie, let them cool completely, and then attached a snack-size reese's onto each with a tiny bit of icing. I made homemade royal icing so that the feathers, gobbler, feet, and beak would all dry completely. We used food gel to tint the icing different fall colors, and just to make it all super easy, I put each color in a separate piping bag. We opted to use pre-made edible candy eyeballs because they're fun and quick, and gave the turkeys a slightly crazed, adorable expression akin to googly eyes.