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    Frosted Animal Cookies for Christmas

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    These cookies were inspired by a nostalgic childhood treat – Frosted Animal Cookies! This version gives shortbread a holiday makeover in red, green, and white with lots of sprinkles on top.

    These cookies were the result of a happy accident. I ordered a set of cookie cutters (these) for a client project, and when they arrived they were much smaller than I expected! I love miniatures of all kinds, and these cutters were too adorable for words. If you look closely, they are all dog shapes – although the dachshund could pass for a seal which is one of the original Keebler Animal Cookie shapes – ha!

    I instantly knew these cutters were destined to stamp out shortbread shapes for a version of animal cookies all dressed in holiday colors!

    Because the cutters are so small, one batch of dough makes many, many cookies! It’s definitely an intense session of stamping and re-rolling dough, but it goes pretty fast. And the beauty of the icing is that there’s not a lot of fussy detail – it’s simply icing and sprinkles.

    I divided the assorted shapes into three batches and decorated each batch of shapes a different color. I think they look really festive!

    These don’t have to be dog shapes, of course, but if you’re like me and love doggos, or have friends that are dog owners, then bags of these would make fun gifts for them! If you’re more interested in the traditional circus animal shapes, you can find those cutters here.

    These are so buttery which is the hallmark of any good shortbread, and the royal icing gives them just the right amount of sweetness. They are so adorably mini, it makes eating handfuls a totally reasonable thing to do!
    Frosted Animal Cookies for Christmas[Click for Printable Version]
    Yields 8+ dozenSmall animal cookie cutters are required for this recipe. See blog post for sources.Shortbread
    4 cups all-purpose flour
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
    1 teaspoon lemon zest
    1 cup confectioners’ sugar
    2 teaspoons vanilla extractPreheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment paper.Sift flour and salt into a bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer or in a medium bowl with a hand mixer, beat butter and lemon zest on medium low speed until smooth and creamy. Gradually add sugar and beat until smooth, about two minutes. Beat in vanilla extract. On low speed, gradually add flour mixture, gently stirring just until incorporated. Flatten the dough out into a disk shape and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill until firm, about 1 hour.Roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut out animal shapes with lightly floured cookie cutters, and place on the prepared baking sheets. Refrigerate for 15 minutes so the dough will firm and cookies will maintain their shape when baked. Bake cut-outs for 7-9 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottoms but still pale on top. Cool thoroughly on wire racks before frosting.Royal icing
    4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
    3 tablespoons meringue powder
    1/2 cup warm water, plus more for thinning
    1/2 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
    green gel food color
    red gel food colorRed, white, and green nonpareil mixIn the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, stir the confectioner’s sugar and meringue powder on low speed until combined. Add the water and beat on medium high speed until very stiff peaks form, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add flavoring and beat on low until combined; divide into three bowls and tint one portion of icing with the green gel food color; tint another portion red; leave the third portion white. Bring each to flood consistency.Flood Consistency: Stir drops of water into each bowl until the icing is thinned but still has the consistency of a thick milkshake, this is called flood consistency. To make sure the consistency is correct, drag a spoon through the center of the icing in a straight line, creating an indentation. When the icing is of perfect flood consistency, the indentation should completely disappear in 10 seconds. If it disappears too quickly, then the icing is too thin and will not dry properly. The indentation should disappear as close to the 10 second mark as possible. It is much harder to thicken the icing after it has been thinned than to make thick icing thinner, so take your time and add water drops a few at a time.Place a #2 round decorator piping tip into the bottom of a small piping bag; snip off plastic on the end of the piping bag. Fill piping bag with green icing and seal the open end with a rubber band. Repeat steps with the red and white icing. Stand each piping bag in a tall glass with a moist paper towel in the bottom to prevent the icing from drying out and the tip from clogging.Pour nonpareils in a small container and have them close to hand. Divide cookies into three batches of assorted shapes on large parchment-lined baking pans. Pipe one batch of the cookies with the green icing, stopping to sprinkle on nonpareils immediately after piping each cookie. Pipe the second batch with the red icing and sprinkles, repeat steps with the white icing.Allow the cookies to dry for 4 hours or overnight. When cookies are dry, package assorted shapes and colors of cookies in cellophane bags and tie with festive ribbon. Or, keep them in airtight containers.

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    link Frosted Animal Cookies for Christmas By Heather Baird Published: Monday, December 14, 2020Monday, December 14, 2020Frosted Animal Cookies Recipe LEGGI TUTTO

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      Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars

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      Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars are soft and chewy with lots of citrusy tang. They’re baked in a 13×9 inch dish which removes the hassle of forming individual cookies – just slice and enjoy!Hello, friends! I hope everyone is well and finding the baking ingredients needed to make all the comfort foods required for these days of sheltering. Thankfully, I am now stocked up on flour, yeast, and the other essentials that keep me working and doing what I love.Lately I’ve been craving the flavors of buttercream birthday cake, but I’ve been without the enthusiasm it takes to bake, fill, and frost an entire layer cake. Sugar cookie bars are a low lift stand-in with all of the nostalgic birthday flavors and lots of sprinkles! This recipe is a departure from the usual sugar cookie flavors of vanilla on vanilla (which is also delicious) and instead uses lots of lemon zest and fresh lemon juice to give these treats some zing!
      The first order of business is to make lemon sugar for the cookie dough. Zest an entire lemon over a bowl of sugar and blend together with your fingertips. The citrus oils disperse through the sugar which uniformly flavors the dough.
      Blended together, the cookie dough will be pale and crumbly. Squeeze a handful of crumbles in your palm – if the dough holds together then you’re on the right track!
      Pat the dough evenly in a buttered dish. The dough will turn lightly golden at the edges as it bakes, but the middle should still remain pale – these are soft baked for a thick, chewy texture.
      The buttercream is thick and fluffy, and so tangy with lemon zest and freshly squeezed juice – yum!
      When the cookie portion is completely cool, spread the billowy frosting evenly over the surface.
      Just look at that frosting to cookie ratio! I’d say that’s about 50/50, which is about right for buttercream lovers (me)!
      This kind of baked good is cute, tasty, and practically made to be shared (in normal circumstances they are SO bake sale-worthy!). So, I’m eager to find a way to safely share baked goods like these with friends and family during this time, and with careful packaging and a doorstep delivery I believe it is possible. I have a little more research to do, and I hope to post my findings and methods here!Stay well! xo

      Lemon Sugar Cookie BarsYields 15 servingsLemon cookie1 cup (200g) granulated sugarZest of one lemon (about 1 tablespoon)2 1/2 cups (300g) all-purpose flour1/2 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened1 egg1 tablespoon sour cream or plain yogurt1 tablespoon lemon juice1 teaspoon vanilla extractLemon buttercream1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened4 cups (450g) powdered sugar3 tablespoons lemon juiceZest of one lemon (about 1 tablespoon)Milk or cream, to thin1/4 teaspoon yellow gel food colorMixed pastel rainbow sprinklesPreheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 13×9-inch baking dish.Combine the sugar and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Use your fingertips to blend the zest into the sugar until the zest is well dispersed and the sugar is fragrant with lemon.In a separate mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine.In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter and lemon sugar until creamy. Add the egg, sour cream, lemon juice, and extract. Beat to combine. Add the dry flour mixture and mix together on low speed until well incorporated but still crumbly. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until the edges are slightly golden and the center is still pale. Cool completely before frosting.For the frosting, cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add about 1/3 of the confectioners’ sugar and beat until combined. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest; beat again. Mix in the remaining confectioners’ sugar, adding the milk or cream to thin the mixture to spreading consistency. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add gel food color and whip until a consistent bright yellow color is achieved.Spread the frosting evenly over the cooled cookie in the pan. Cover with sprinkles if desired. Let stand until set, about 10-15 minutes, or chill in the refrigerator until the frosting is firm. Cut into squares before serving. Store cookies in an airtight container for optimal freshness.
      link Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars By Heather Baird Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2020Wednesday, April 22, 2020Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars Recipe LEGGI TUTTO

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      Easter Bunny Cake

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      Hippity-hoppity, Easter’s on its way! Celebrate with this charming bunny-shaped carrot cake, complete with edible Easter grass and candy eggs.Easter is arriving earlier than usual this year (April 12th – last year it was on the 21st!), so now’s the time to commence the making of bunny and egg-themed treats. I was so happy when Wilton invited me to make a spring-themed cake with their products, I couldn’t reply YES fast enough! Soon a box of tools and colorful ingredients arrived at my doorstep, and they inspired this funny bunny cake.

      Look at ALL THE THINGS! I couldn’t wait to get started. Here’s a list of all the items I used and some shopping links in case you’re looking to make your own bunny cake this year.
      I decided early on that this bunny would be made of carrot cake (what else?) and I really appreciated how my favorite carrot sheet cake recipe fit perfectly into the bunny pan. I covered the cooled cake with white buttercream and added some pink fondant ears and a heart-shaped nose. The eyes are jumbo black confetti sprinkles with black fondant eyelids and lashes, which are easy to make using a small circle cutter (see here).

      This egg mold makes the most beautiful candy eggs that have a smooth, matte finish – just like an eggshell! I used pink, orange, and yellow candy melts, but you could use whatever color you have on hand. 

      See how pretty they turned out? Next I’ll be making some chocolate-peanut butter eggs using this mold.
      The Easy Blooms Tip Set was so fun to try! I used it with confectioners’ buttercream that I tinted with the Neon Gel Food Color Set. To achieve flowers with yellow middles, spread icing on a sheet of plastic wrap, and pipe a yellow line of icing in the center -then roll it together, snip the end and place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with an Easy Bloom tip. You could also use a variety of other Wilton piping tips to create pretty flowers for bunny’s crown.I practiced piping on a piece of parchment, and if you try these tips, I recommend you do the same. You’ll soon find a method for applying the right pressure to the piping bag. When I started getting consistently nice-looking flowers, I piped a whole bunch of them on a baking sheet and popped them in the freezer. After a quick chill, I easily transferred the best looking blooms to the cake with a spatula.
      Brushing the cake board with piping gel helped hold on the grassy-looking sprinkles (I used both the Easter Grass Sprinkles and Easter Eggs with Grass Sprinkles). If you don’t have piping gel, then a small amount of corn syrup would also work. I think the molded candy eggs look right at home nestled in the grass.
      I gave bunny some sprinkle freckles – HA! – which totally made me happy and I giggled for a good minute before moving on to adding bunny head-shaped sprinkles to the flower crown. (How silly is that sentence!?) Both of these sprinkles are part of the Spring Sprinkles set.
      What a fun project! And the cake is so colorful, it’s like a ray of sunshine – which I think we all could use right about now.Follow my favorite carrot sheet cake recipe, which is usually baked in a 13×9-inch pan and comes with a quick cream cheese frosting recipe. The batter fits perfectly in the Easter Bunny Cake Pan, and you can find my American Buttercream recipe here, which I used to frost and decorate Bunny.

      Carrot Sheet CakeYields 15 servings1 1/2 cups (180g, or 7 oz.) all-purpose flour1 teaspoon baking powder1 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon ground cinnamon1 cup (200g) granulated sugar1 1/4 cups grated carrot (about 2 1/4 large carrots)2/3 cup (160ml) vegetable oil2 large eggs8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained1 teaspoon vanilla extractPreheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 13×9-inch baking pan.In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the first six ingredients. Whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the carrot, oil, eggs, pineapple, and vanilla. Stir well to combine. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.Quick cream cheese frosting3 oz. cream cheese, softened4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract2 1/4 cups (310g) powdered sugar, siftedIn the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium speed. Mix in the vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Spread on top of cooled cake. Store the frosted cake in the refrigerator covered in plastic wrap. Bring to room temperature before serving.
      link Easter Bunny Cake By Heather Baird Published: Friday, March 27, 2020Friday, March 27, 2020Easter Bunny Cake (Carrot Sheet Cake Recipe) LEGGI TUTTO