A Book Baby Shower

My little sister is having her first baby - literally any day now - and we had an absolutely adorable shower for her a couple of months ago.   Yes, it was in April, and I'm just now posting about it - it happens.

I started out on Pinterest to find some ideas and quickly had about four different themes planned when I realized that they all revolved around children's books.  Reading with my kids is one of my favorite moments of the day and they both love books.  I hope that Nikki will enjoy reading with baby Colton just as much and we wanted to get her library started for him.

I love how this shower turned out and was so happy to get to throw it -- now I just can't wait to meet baby Colton!!

I took a few shortcuts with the food on this shower since I was travelling by plane to get there.  We ordered the cake from a bakery and everything on the menu was quick and easy to prepare.

For the invitations, I just put together some images of the characters in several of the books we were using.  I made coordinating signs for each of the dishes on the menu as well to tie the food into the book theme.

The menu and book pairings included:

Sam I Am's Green Deviled Eggs - complete with the egg whites dyed green instead of the egg yolks - based on a Pinterest tutorial I found here, you can dye eggs any color you want and it doesn't affect the flavor at all.

Guess How Much I Love You Veggies and Hummus - it was a stretch but it's "bunny food" and I love this book.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Fruit and Yogurt Dip

Where The Wild Things Are & Max's Turkey "Muenster" Sandwiches - a simple sandwich with shaved turkey breast, muenster cheese, baby spinach and mustard.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - with a quick chili sauce and grape jelly sauced meatball.

If You Give a Mouse a Snickerdoodle - we subbed in Snickerdoodles since they are my sister's favorite.

Jamberry Pies - if you've never heard of the book Jamberry you should look it up, such a cute rhyming story.  I made mini cherry, lemon and apple pies in a muffin tin taking some help from refrigerated pie crust for this one.

And from Giraffe's Cant Dance, Gerald's (non-alcoholic of course) Jungle Juice.

We also used Good Night Moon as a guest book, asking guests to leave a message for Mom or baby.

I made a simple diaper cake and added signs from the book Little Blue Truck and found some animal baby toys to add in for extra fun.

One of the best things about the baby shower was the onesie decorating station we set up outside in lieu of playing traditional shower games.  We had so much fun decorating onesies with fabric paint and stencils and iron-on transfers and they turned out so cute!

Spiced Brown Sugar Shamrock Cookies

I hope you enjoyed your St. Patrick's Day!  Times have changed a bit for us from green beers to green cookies for daycare parties but when your two year old is super excited about "my cookies" these still make it a great day.  These shamrock cookies are Spiced Brown Sugar Cookies with a simple buttercream frosting.

Spiced Brown Sugar Cookies
Originally posted here
Yields approximately 2 dozen large cookies

3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 1/2  tsp vanilla extract

Powdered sugar for rolling

Combine flour, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  In a mixing bowl, cream sugar, brown sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until well incorporated.  Slowly add flour mixture, mixing on low speed.  The dough will be very stiff.  Lay out a large sheet of plastic wrap and turn dough out on to plastic.  Form into a disk and wrap tightly.  Chill approximately one hour.  

Remove dough from refrigerator and let stand five to ten minutes at room temperature.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.  Generously sprinkle powdered sugar over work area and rolling pin.  Roll dough to about 1/4" - 1/2" thick and cut into desired shapes.  Transfer to prepared pans and bake about 9-12 minutes.  Cookies shouldn't really brown but will firm up.  Remove from the oven, let stand about one minute on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  When completely cool, frost as desired.

My baby girl turned One!

Yes it was two months ago... and I'm just now getting around to sharing a few of the details.  I know, life has been a little crazy around here as we prepare for baby number 2... can't believe she'll be here in another 6 weeks or so, and try to finish up all the remodeling projects - the new nursery and master bathroom being at the top of the list.  But even in those two months, I still can't believe my baby girl is over a year old, walking, jabbering constantly and really developing quite the personality.

For Aubrey's party - we did a little bit of a circus/carnival theme - I'll admit largely due to the fact that I was slightly obsessed with the pennant flag banners that are popping up all over the place right now.  I just love them and thought they would make adorable party decor.  My sister Nikki, of Doodle Dog Advertising, made some adorable invitations for the party featuring a cute little elephant that I decided to use for the cookies too.

Photo by DoodleDog Advertising

I combined the elephants with some friendly little lions inspired by cookies that I had bookmarked quite a while ago from Bridget at Bake at 350.  I love the way they turned out, but a word of warning, don't ever try to layer your cookies with wax paper when you run out of parchment paper at 10 pm, the wax paper stuck to the frosting in several places and I had to do some minor cookie reconstructive surgery the day of the party.  My go to sugar cookie recipe can be found here.

For the cakes, I knew I wanted to make Aubrey a simple smash cake and I tied the main cake back to our circus theme with a mini-pennant banner strung from plastic carnival stripe straws.

I used a basic white cake recipe (also seen here) from Magnolia Bakery for both to keep things simple and filled and frosted them with a simple buttercream.  Sprinkles and a fun corkscrew candle were all the decoration the smash cake needed and a simple dot pattern adorned the main cake.

Finally I made a 3rd cake (2nd smash cake) for a photo shoot with Dede Holman Photography the following week so we could have some adorable pictures to document the occasion.

Photo by Dede Holman Photography

For other food at the party I stuck with some simple spins on carnival food - spicy whiskey BBQ sliders (slightly modified from Pioneer Woman - I used ground turkey instead of beef and cut out the majority of the butter and served them on Hawaiian roles), kettle corn, fruit skewers on a stick and animal crackers with a vanilla honey yogurt dip (a simple combination of vanilla yogurt, a little honey for sweetness and some lime zest), nachos with cheese dip and guacamole, mini corndogs muffins (recipe found on Iowa Girl Eats) and veggies and dip.

Traditional White Birthday Cake
Recipe slightly adapted from Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup whole milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 3 8" baking pans baking spray and line the bottoms with parchment rounds.

Cream the butter on medium high speed until smooth. Add the sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Combine milk and vanilla in a measuring cup. Add flour in 3 parts, alternating with the milk, beating well after each addition, beginning and ending with flour. Set batter aside.

Add egg whites to a clean mixing bowl and begin beating on low speed, gradually increasing speed to high as egg whites thicken. Beat until the egg whites make soft peaks. Gently fold into cake batter, 1/3 at a time.

Bake 22-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pans for about 5 minutes, loosen the edges with a knife if necessary, and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.


Note: this recipe will make 2 2-layer 6" smash cakes or 1 3 layer 8" cake, so double the recipe if you want to make the 2-tier cake and a smash cake.  In the pictures above, the smash cakes are each built with 2 6" cakes cut in half horizontally to make 4 total thin layers and then torted with buttercream.  The 2-tier cake is done the same way with a 6" cake over an 8" cake.  I did use small wooden dowels for stability when stacking the tiers.

Buttercream Icing

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 lb powdered sugar

Beat butter in a large mixing bowl for 2-3 minutes until smooth and creamy, add in vanilla and cream and mix on low speed until incorporated.  Add powdered sugar in a several additions to prevent it from making a giant cloud of sugar all over your kitchen.  Mix on low speed until incorporated and increase speed gradually to medium high and whip an additional 1-2 minutes.  Icing should be thick but easily spreadable. 

Note: this will make enough icing to torte and ice at least one smash cake but you will need more to do all of the cakes above.

Spiced Brown Sugar Christmas Cookies

I had to make another batch of Christmas cookies, and since it was my 4th batch of sugar cookies in as many weeks, I decided to go for something a little different this time around.  For the dough, I made a spiced brown sugar cookie dough.  They turned out to be sort of a cross between a gingerbread cookie and a sugar cookie.   They are prepared the same way as traditional roll and cut cookies, making them convenient to do in parts.  You can (and should by at least an hour or two) make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate.  Then when you are ready to bake them, roll out the dough, cut and bake.  This dough is a little bit more particular than my normal sugar cookie dough.  I had to let it sit on the counter about ten minutes before I was able to roll it out.  But don't let it sit out too long, if it becomes too warm, the dough will be sticky. 

For icing, I used royal icing again, you can find the recipe here.  If you are going to color your royal icing, I recommend using gel food colorings.  I especially like the Americolor brand if you can find them; they come in convenient squeeze bottles which is more convenient than the Wilton jars.  Around here, I can find Wilton at several different places but can only get the Americolor at Hobby Lobby or online.  If you try to use the normal liquid food colorings, it will change the consistency of your icing or you wont be able to add enough to get saturated colors.  If you are having trouble finding meringue powder, check out a craft store like Michaels or Hobby Lobby - again, I can only find the Wilton brand.  You may also be able to find it at large grocery stores, sometimes in the baking aisle and sometimes it's in a craft section if you are at a store like Walmart or Meijer. 

This is my first attempt at marbling with royal icing so I'll tell you what I did and recommend that you google a tutorial -- Bridget from Bake at 350 has tips and so does Marian of Sweetopia.  To do the peppermint candies, I outlined and flooded my cookies like normal, doing about a dozen cookies at a time.  I then used the red outline consistency icing in a piping bag with a Wilton tip #3 to pipe a swirl onto the center of the candy.  I gently tapped the cookies to let the swirl settle into the flood icing.  Then used a toothpick to drag through the swirl to create the marble effect. 

Spiced Brown Sugar Cookies
Recipe slightly adapted from Bake at 350

3 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 1/2  tsp vanilla extract

Combine flour, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  In a mixing bowl, cream sugar, brown sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until well incorporated.  Slowly add flour mixture, mixing on low speed.  The dough will be very stiff.  Lay out a large sheet of plastic wrap and turn dough out on to plastic.  Form into a disk and wrap tightly.  Chill approximately one hour. 

Remove dough from refrigerator and let stand five to ten minutes at room temperature.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.  Generously flour work area and rolling pin.  Roll dough to about 1/4" thick and cut into desired shapes.  Transfer to prepared pans and bake about 9-12 minutes.  Cookies shouldn't really brown but will firm up.  Remove from the oven, let stand about one minute on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  When completely cool, frost as desired.

See other examples here:
Thanksgiving cookies
Christmas Cookies
Gingerbread Snowflakes 
More Christmas Cookies

Rasberry Pochettes

These are a simple little treat with an indulgent cream cheese crust filled with jam.  You can use whatever flavor you have on hand, I thought the raspberry would be pretty and it's one of my favorite flavors of jam.  That and my husband won't use it for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so we weren't out of it when I went to make these.  Use jelly or preserves for these, it doesn't matter.  I prefer preserves so that's what I used here.

I used a flower cookie cutter to cut these out because I liked the rounded edges and added decoration.  You can use any shape you like or a simple 3" round cookie cutter.  One thing to note, with the flower cookie cutter, you'll have more leakage because the edges won't line up quite as perfectly as a round cut-out would.  I recommend baking these on parchment paper so you don't end up with a sticky mess of burnt jelly to clean up when you are done. 

Raspberry Pochettes
Recipe adapted from Melissa D'Arabian via Food Network

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
Approximately 1/2 cup raspberry jam
1 egg white
Sanding sugar

Combine butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  Slowly add the flour and salt, beating on low speed until just combined.  Lay out a large sheet of plastic wrap and turn the dough out onto the plastic.  Form into a disk, wrap tightly and refrigerate at least one hour. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.  Generously flour your work surface and a rolling pin.  Roll out the dough to about 1/8" thick.  Cut out rounds or shapes as desired.  Add about a half a teaspoon of jam to one side of each cookie.  Brush the edges lightly with water.  Fold the dough over and press to seal.  Crimp the edges with a fork.  Re-roll scraps and continue with remaining dough. 

Beat egg white with approximately one tablespoon of water, brush over cookies and sprinkle cookies with sanding sugar.  Bake until golden, about 18 - 20 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely and serve. 

Sugar Cookies for Christmas

Frosted sugar cookies are a staple on almost everyone's Christmas baking list.  I've made them lots of different ways over the years but my favorite recipe is this one.  These cookies bake up without changing shape so its easy to see the details from the cookie cutter.  They stay fresh for quite a while and don't turn rock hard as long as you keep them in an airtight container.  The almond and vanilla extracts give them great flavor without being too sweet. 

Royal icing is necessary if you want cookies that you can decorate in layers and it dries hard so you can stack the finished cookies without ruining them.  Royal icing requires a little practice but it's pretty quick and easy once you get the hang of it.  The recipe below will give you the right consistency to outline your cookies.  I generally use a piping bag and a Wilton tip #2 or #3 to outline my cookies.

Once you've outlined the cookies, thin the icing by adding a little bit of water (a teaspoon or less) at a time until it reaches the consistency of a thick syrup.  In my opinion, the easiest way to fill in the cookies is to fill a squeeze bottle with the thinned icing and flood the cookies, using a toothpick to pop any air bubbles and spread icing out to the outline.  You'll want to let the outlines dry for about an hour minimum before you fill them in.  Then let the thinned icing dry overnight before stacking the cookies and packaging.

Sugar Cookies
Recipe slightly adapted from Annie's Eats

1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for rolling out cookies

Cream butter in a large mixing bowl on medium high speed, about two minutes.  Add powdered sugar and beat until well incorporated. Add in egg, almond and vanilla extracts, and salt and mix until well incorporated.  Add in flour and beat on low speed just until mixed.  Transfer dough to a large sheet of plastic wrap, form into a disc and wrap well.  Refrigerate dough for at least one hour. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpats.  Flour counter to roll out cookies.  Also flour rolling pin.  Roll to approximately 1/4" thick and cut with cookie cutters as desired. Transfer cookies to prepared pans and bake about 8 - 10 minutes.  Cookies should not brown.  Gather scraps and re-roll.  If dough becomes sticky, return to refrigerator briefly before rolling.  Recipe yields about 4 dozen cookies depending on size of cookie cutters. 

Royal Icing
Recipe from Bake at 350

4 T meringue powder
Scant 1/2 cup water
1 lb powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp corn syrup
1/4 tsp almond extract

Combine water and meringue powder in mixing bowl.  You can make royal icing without a stand mixer but its a lot easier with one, your arm will get tired with a hand mixer!  Beat until slightly foamy.  Add powdered sugar, corn syrup and extract, beat on low speed until combined.  Increase speed to medium high and beat about five minutes until stiff peaks form and icing is glossy.  Divide icing into small containers to color.  Add gel coloring as desired and press a piece of plastic wrap directly against the surface of the icing and cover with a lid. 

To do the shimmery snowflakes, I added sanding sugar over the thinned icing after letting the cookies stand about five minutes.  For the Christmas trees, I let the flood icing dry completely before piping on the swirl lines with the original outline icing.  If you leave the outline icing in the piping bag, make sure you cover it with a damp towel to keep it from drying out.

This recipe should be enough for the above cookie recipe unless you need to use lots of colors/layers of icing. 

See other examples here:
Thanksgiving cookies
Christmas Cookies
Gingerbread Snowflakes

Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Have you ever heard of cinnamon chips?  I had heard of them but had yet to ever see them in a grocery store until a few days ago.  My local Kroger had a big baking display for the holidays and they had all kinds of chips on sale, including cinnamon chips.  I wasn't sure what I was going to make with them but I figured I should pick up a bag and figure that out later.  By the time I got home, I had decided they would be perfect in oatmeal raisin cookies.  Evidently I wasn't the only one who thought it would be a good idea... Hershey's had a similar recipe on the back of the package.  I used my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe from Quaker and just adjusted a bit.

Unfortunately I also found out that my dog also enjoys these cookies.  We left the house on Sunday and I forgot that I had left the plate of cookies on the counter instead of putting them in a storage container and when we got home there were only a few cookies left on the plate.  Luckily she hadn't knocked the plate off the counter and broke it into a million pieces and at least she didn't get sick from all the cookies.  But I am going to have to make these again because we didn't get very many before the dog finished them off.  Make sure you store yours somewhere a little more secure.

Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Recipe adapted from Quaker Oats

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 T dark corn syrup
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
2/3 cup golden raisins
2/3 cup cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Combine butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Add in eggs, vanilla and corn syrup and beat well. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and mix until well incorporated. Add oats and mix in by hand until evenly mixed. Finally stir in raisins and cinnamon chips.  (A sturdy wooden spoon works well for this as the batter will be quite stiff.)

Use a cookie scoop or similar measure to drop onto prepared cookie sheets and bake for approximately 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on the pan about one minute and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.  Recipe yields about four dozen cookies, depending on size.

Soft and Thick Sugar Cookies

These sugar cookies are similar to the Lofthouse sugar cookies you get at the grocery store.  They start out with a box of cake mix - which isnt usually on my grocery list but I happened to have a box in the pantry from a while back so I figured I would try them.  The recipe said to make sure you use the kind with pudding in the mix as that helps with the softness.  They turned out really, really good.  I loved the texture of these - they are so soft - and they stay that way for several days too. 

The frosting on the storebought version of these cookies is never great in my opinion, so using a homemade buttercream frosting adds a special touch.  You can decorate these however you want - they would be really cute for Halloween if you tinted the frosting orange and used some black sprinkles or nonpareils. 

Soft and Thick Sugar Cookies
Recipe adapted from Noshings

Cookies:
1 18 oz box white cake mix with pudding in the mix
2/3 cup flour
2 large eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
2 T sour cream (I used reduced fat)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large mixing bowl, stir together cake mix and flour.  Add eggs, oil and sour cream and mix on medium speed until incorporated.  Batter will be fairly stiff.  Use a cookie scoop or roll into approximately one inch balls and bake on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper.  This will help keep the bottoms of the cookies from browning.  Use the heel of your hand or a glass dusted with sugar to gently flatten cookies to about a half inch thick.  You don't want the bottoms to be browned or you've overbaked these.  Bake approximately ten minutes until just set.  Let cool about one minute on the pan and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Frosting:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 T heavy cream
1 T vanilla extract
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 T meringue powder
Food coloring or sprinkles as desired

Beat butter on medium speed for about two minutes until smooth.  Add cream and vanilla and beat about one more minute to incorporate.  Add sugar, one cup at a time mixing on low speed until incorporated until you reach the desired consistency.  Add meringue powder  (this will help your frosting crust so that you can stack the cookies without smearing your frosting all over the place, I use a sheet of wax or parchment paper in between layers).  You want the frosting to be fairly stiff so that it doesnt run off your cookies.  Frost cooled cookies and decorate as desired.  Store cookies in an airtight container.

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies

Now that kids are back to school, maybe you need the occasional sweet treat to send in your child's lunchbox.  When I was a kid, we used to get Little Debbie snacks every once in a while and one of my favorites were Oatmeal Cream Pies.  The soft oatmeal cookie sandwiching marshmallow cream filling was such a great combination.  However, these days if I'm going to eat baked goods, I dont want them in a cellophane package from the grocery store. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been loving this marshmallow frosting lately so knowing I would have some leftover, I baked a batch of soft, chewy oatmeal cookies and decided to make some homemade oatmeal cream pies to send with my husband for his company picnic.

I would recommend using a cookie scoop or some form of uniform measure to drop the cookies onto the sheet so that you end up with cookies that match up fairly well for even sandwiches. 

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies
Cookie recipe adapted from Quaker Oats, Filling recipe from here

Cookies:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 T dark corn syrup
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Combine butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until creamy.  Add in eggs, vanilla and corn syrup and beat well.  Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and mix until well incorporated.  Add oats and mix in by hand until evenly mixed.  (A sturdy wooden spoon works well for this as the batter will be quite stiff.)

Use a cookie scoop or similar measure to drop onto prepared cookie sheets and bake for approximately 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown.  (Depending on how big you make the cookies, you may need to flatten slightly.)  Cool for about a minute on the pan and then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.  Match up cookies in pairs and pipe on filling.

Filling:
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a double boiler (I set my stainless steel mixing bowl over a small saucepan) combine egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar and heat over simmering water.  Whisk almost constantly, heating to 160 degrees.  Transfer mix to mixing bowl and beat on high speed (with whisk attachment if you are using a stand mixer) until egg whites hold stiff peaks.  Add vanilla and mix until just incorporated.  Transfer to a piping bag and pipe onto half the cookies (a small offset spatula will also work if you prefer), leaving about 1/4 - 1/2 inch around the edges.  Sandwich with top cookie and press lightly to distribute filling.  Store in an airtight container.
 

Orange Creamsicle Cookies

Sure most people don't ever really get sick of chocolate chip cookies, but I like to experiment and find new things to make. So even though there is no reason to mess with a perfectly good cookie, I decided to add some orange zest to chocolate chip cookie dough.

Then as I was getting the ingredients together, I remembered a recipe I had found in the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. Instead of chocolate chips, it used vanilla chips or white chocolate chips (which are much easier to find around here at least) and combined with the orange zest, makes a cookie reminscent of an orange dreamsicle pop from an ice cream truck. They are just as easy as traditional cookies, but offer something unexpected.


Orange Creamsicle Cookies
Recipe from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook
Makes about 3 dozen cookies

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
Zest of 1 orange
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with Silpats or parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt. Stir together and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and beat until combined. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until well incorporated. Add orange zest and beat to distribute. Stir in chips.

Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to drop in rounded spoonfuls on cookie sheets, leaving plenty of room between cookies to allow for some spreading. Bake for about 10 minutes until light golden brown. Cool about 1 minute on cookie sheets and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Shamrock Sandwich Cookies

Well technically Shamrock Green Velvet Whoopie Pies but that was too long of a title...


These are just red velvet cake cookies made with green food coloring instead of red. Make sure you get a separate bottle of green liquid food coloring as it takes a lot of color to get a vibrant green color. McCormick makes individual 1 ounce food coloring and its available pretty much anywhere, I found it at Walmart. I didn't need the whole bottle, green is easier to achieve than red. Just be careful when you mix these up, it can get a little messy with all the food coloring.

To do the shapes, find the shape you want and trace it onto parchment paper with a Sharpie or pencil. When you draw the shapes out remember that you will want to pipe inside the lines as the cookies will spread a little. Also, you want a shape that isn't too detailed. Because of how the cookies spread, you have to over-exaggerate the detail when piping so it doesn't all just run together. You can use a Ziploc bag and just snip off the corner if you don't have a piping bag.

The filling is a classic cream cheese frosting. When the cookies are cooled, you'll want to match up the shapes as well as possible and then pipe the frosting on, leaving some space around all the edges so when you sandwich the top cookie on, the filling will squeeze to the edges and not over them.

Shamrock Sandwich Cookies
Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats

Cookies:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 T light corn syrup
2 cups all purpose flour
2 T cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/2 - 1 oz green liquid food coloring

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper, with pencil side down.

Beat butter and sugar in mixing bowl on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and beat until well incorporated. Mix in vanilla and corn syrup and beat about 30 seconds more.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a small mixing bowl. Add 1/3 of the mix to the batter and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Add 1/2 of the buttermilk and beat until just incorporated. Repeat with another 1/3 of the flour mix and the rest of the buttermilk and finally the last 1/3 of the flour mix. Scrape sides of the bowl as needed. Finally add food coloring, start with about 1/2 and mix until the color is uniform but do not over beat.

Transfer batter to a piping bag fitting with a large round tip and pipe onto parchment paper. Bake about 8 minutes until the cookies are set. Cool about 5 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
5 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter on medium high speed until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in vanilla and beat about another minute. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time beating on low until incorporated. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe onto back of 1/2 the cookies.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Scotchies

These were created in an effort to use up some leftover baking supplies from my Christmas baking but I think they may be added to my list of cookies to make more often. My husband liked these better than traditional Oatmeal Scotchies made with only butterscotch chips. I had a little less than half a bag of both butterscotch and milk chocolate chips in the pantry so I thought I would use both. I usually make the Vanishing Oatmeal Cookie recipe from Quaker and just add butterscotch chips instead of raisins but modified it slightly for these cookies. I also only had 1 stick of butter on hand so I used half butter and half butter-flavored Crisco for these. It worked out fine but the cookies spread a little more and turn out thinner than with all butter so I would recommend using all butter but if you're in a pinch feel free to substitute.


Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Scotchies
Adapted from Quaker Oats
Yields about 4 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 T light corn syrup
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate but semi-sweet would work too)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and corn syrup and mix well. Add baking soda, cinnamon, salt and flour and mix until combined. Using a wooden spoon, stir in oats and chips. I chill the dough for about 20 minutes and then scoop cookies onto baking sheets and bake about 10-12 minutes. Cool on the pan for about 1 minute and then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling. Store in an airtight container.


A couple of tips (that apply to almost any drop cookie recipe):

• I generally bake a test cookie unless its a cookie recipe I have made a million times just to be sure there is enough flour. I would hate to ruin a whole dozen cookies.

• My new favorite thing are Silpats... no more cooking spray and they keep the bottoms of your cookies from getting dark. Parchment paper works too but if you bake a lot of cookies, Silpats will be more economical and environment-friendly.
• Put your cookie dough back in the refrigerator between batches to keep it from getting too warm.
• If you bake more than one sheet of cookies at a time, rotate the pans from top to bottom rack and side to side halfway through the baking time.

• A cookie scoop works really well to make sure all your cookies are similar in size so they bake up evenly. I scoop them out and then press them down slightly so the edges don't crisp up too much before the middles are done.