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How To Make Decorated Bulldozer Cookies

Sometimes my day runs away with itself. See, a few minutes ago, I woke up and made my kids breakfast. And now they are in their beds asleep. I know this day happened because my house is a complete mess...library books scattered down the hall like a trail of breadcrumbs, an overturned princess shopping cart* in the front room, shoes as far as the eye can see... this day really happened. But HOW did it happen? How did I go from breakfast to bedtime without accomplishing anything? How did that shopping cart find itself in such a predicament? And where did these bulldozer cookies come from?! If you want help recovering your days and keeping your house clean... I've got nothing for you. But if you want to make your own bulldozer cookies... I can help you with that one. 1. With thin white icing and a #1 tip, pipe a little window. Let it dry for a bit. ESPECIALLY if you're going to use a dark color for the body of the bulldozer. 2. Pipe the blade and the cab** with 17 s

Piping Straight Lines -- Quick Tip Tuesday

I've taught quite a few people to decorate cookies in my day. At least like.... seven people. So I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert beginning cookie decorator watcher. And I would say that perhaps the single most frustrating aspect of decorating for a beginner is getting consistency right.   And the second would be watching me pipe an outline and then trying it themselves only to discover that their perfect outline magically turned into a thin, squiggly outline instead. You can read all about icing consistency in THIS POST . And once you've got that mastered, or if you like to live in denial... we can talk about straight NON-SQUIGGLY outlines. At the risk of being incredibly annoying, I will say that first you need to have the right consistency of icing. It's got to be thick, or this just won't work. Second, don't touch the cookie ! The tip should only touch the cookie when you start, stop, and make a corner. Other than that, your goal is to lay do

Make Hand Cutting Cookies As Easy As Possible -- Quick Tip Tuesday

Let me just be clear. I don't love hand cutting cookies. At all. If I were to list the things I love most in the world, hand cutting cookies wouldn't be on it. I'm going to let you in on a little secret that is going to make your hand cutting life a little easier. Oil spray. That's the secret. Print or draw your design on paper. Cut it out and then spray it with oil. It "sticks" to the cookie dough like Velcro. You don't even have to hold it down to cut around it. I use a paring knife because it's sharp and short to cut my cookies. As an added bonus... once you spray your paper cut out, it becomes translucent. You can see the design from either side. Sometimes I do this when I trace the wrong side of the cutter for my sketch. Instead of flipping every cookie over, I just spray my sketch and flip it over.  When you are done you just pop it off with a toothpick or the edge of a knife. I usually leave it on top until I've transferred t

Decorated Barbecue Cookies

If you are ever in a cookie rut... might I suggest a little game to jump start your creativity? It's really simple. Let 2 children under the age of 4 go all crazy-pants in your cookie cutter cabinet. Just pretend that you are going to do something actually productive like feed the baby or learn Mandarin and come back 3.6 minutes later. Your cutters will be scattered across the house like... like...well, like something that gets scattered all over the place when your back is turned but isn't gross, because I really hate bugs and cookie cutters should never be compared to bugs. Especially the gross ones. And then let your 7 year old help you sort them back into their appropriate boxes. Because when he picks up the ark cutter... he might just think it's a hamburger. And then you're set. Although, there's always the chance that he'll think it's one of those little robot vacuum things instead. And then demand that you get him one so he doesn't have t

How to Think Outside the Cutter

  I consider myself to be a go-getter. I do what I want and I don't usually take "no" for an answer. Unless it's illegal, and then "no" is totally cool with me. And also only if it doesn't involve laundry. Laundry and I are *so* not friends. And sometimes when people are mean, I just stay home and sulk and maybe watch pointless internet videos until my eyes want to fall out of my head. I guess I'm only kind of a go-getter.  But with cookies, I go all out. And I like to make the cookies I want to make. Not the cookies the cookie cutter companies tell me that I want to make. They're not the president of my cookies. And until they start cleaning my living room, I am not going to let them tell me what to do. (But I'm still okay if they want to send me presents on my birthday or something.) Sometimes I see a cutter and I fall in love with it. And I want to keep it forever and make cookies of dreams. And sometimes I don't. Sometimes I s

Spectacular Fireworks Cookies

I love holiday cookies. (Who am I kidding? I love COOKIES!) I love that Internet Land re-decorates every few weeks with a new theme. You get to come up with brand new ideas or bring back old favorites. And everyone's doing it , so you get to be part of the crowd. Or not. Because, let's be honest some more... holidays just kind of sneak up on me. Every. Single. Time. Here's out it works -- 1. Holiday season opens. Excitement. YEAY! Fun new cookie ideas! 2. I spend my life dreaming up all the creative and festive designs and forget that such a thing as "laundry" and "healthy living" exist because -- COOKIES, that's why. 3. I get tired. 4. I don't want to mix up the icing. 5. Laundry really does have to happen. 6. The holiday is over. But this time, THIS TIME, I skipped step #3 and actually made cookies. Twice . Because these fireworks are SO crazy easy and fun to make. Before you make these, you need to make your own assortment of

Torch of Liberty Cookies

I don't really understand how to celebrate the 4th of July. Here's what I have so far -- There should be watermelon. And fireworks. That's all I've got. What am I missing? Do they still have watermelon seed spitting contests? Is it a kids' holiday? Or for adults now? Do you light your own fireworks in the street and then drop them safely into the bucket of water that some responsible and still sane mother REQUIRED be brought out before a single fuse was lit? Is there still the age old argument about how old a child really has to be before they can light just one teensy firework ? Do you grill something and eat corn on the cob? Is there soda involved? (Do people even use the word soda?) Are there parades? Are they in the morning or at night? What about a dunk tank? One time in my life... there was a dunk tank. Can that be a thing from here on out? Do you sit around the table and tell America what you love about her? Or just write secret admirer notes and drop