Day Eight: Frosted Sugar Cookies

It's not Christmas without frosted sugar cookies, right?  This year, I googled a recipe that was a roll-out cookie dough recipe that used Cream of Tartar.  My grandmother's cookie recipe is the best, but it's a drop sugar cookie recipe and I always end up adding all of this extra flour, so I decided to try a new recipe this year.  I also decided to make my "signature" butter cream instead of royal icing or any other type of frosting.

 Another recipe that calls for powdered sugar instead of granulated.

 Gotta soften that butter up!

 Mix the dry ingredients first, set aside.

 Other "stuff."

 Flour up that baking mat.

  I actually had to add a lot of flour to this recipe in order to get it to roll out as well.

 Ready for the oven!

 So yummy all baked and fresh!  My friend Beckie recently reminded me that our first Christmas in NC we made sugar cookies like these and kept wondering if they were done since they don't really get browned!  So funny.

 Cooling and ready for the frosting.

 I could go all "Martha" on these, but some things are just left classic.  I think I made them cute, but not over-the-top!  I used a lot of my cupcake decor on these cookies.

 And a Michigan State stocking, too!

Merry Christmas!!!

By the way - Steve said that these cookies were his favorite sugar cookies ever!

"The Mulligan"

So I had a weekend at the beach coming up, with an added Friday off, so I knew I'd use my extra time to make a batch of cupcakes.  I am trying to build my professional portfolio, so I wanted to be able to try a new recipe and also take some more professional pictures.

My friend Dawn would be celebrating her birthday that weekend, so I decided to ask her if there was anything special I could make for her.  She mentioned the flavor that I had made for her bridal shower, so I decided to scrap the plan of a "new" flavor and stick with the plan of taking professional pictures of a cupcake that I was too busy to photograph last time.

Since we'd be staying at a family friend's beach house, I wasn't going to have all of the tools I needed, but I did pack a few essentials.

I mixed the dry ingredients, melted the fattening ingredients, and then mixed them all together - all with only my Pampered Chef Spatula!

This cake recipe is very runny - but it makes the cake so, so good!  I could just pour the batter into the pans.  (Right now I am working on getting rid of these horrible Wilton cupcake liners:)

See how they fold in?  I HATE them!

Now for the frosting: 

Have two things ever looked as yummy?  I think not.




The double boiler came in handy, but of course the frosting was too runny.  Oh well, it all worked out in the end!

The week leading up to the trip I saw something fantastic in a blog and I decided to try it in some of my cupcakes:

I then crushed up the rest of the Reese's Cups and sprinkled them on top.  They were enjoyed by all, and were GONE by the end of the weekend!