My Niece's Birthday Party Part 2- Super Cute Fish Cookies

Sorry for the delay in this post. My precious baby (meaning my laptop) spent several days away from me while it got some much needed updates and downloads. But now she's back and we can get crackin' on these colorful, easy-but-time-consuming fish cookies.

 In a fantasy world where I didn't have to work 12 hours the day before the party, I had planned on making amazing little fish cookies with buttercream decorations- a school of little cuties covered in stripes, polka dots, big friendly eyes and a delicious buttery taste. Then reality hit me and I realized I was going to have to get up at 6 A.M. in order to get the cookies and cupcakes done in time for the 5 P.M. party. The result were cream cheese sugar cookies with Wilton's poured cookie icing (oh boy, just wait for that fun little tale).

What you need for the cookies:
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese (I like to use Neufchatel cheese for baking. This is just cream cheese   with 1/3 less fat and can be found in most brands)
2 sticks butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

For a large batch of icing:
5 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup light corn syrup
Plenty of vanilla, butter flavoring, salt or anything else you end up desperately using to make this taste edible

To begin, beat the cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gradually mix in the flour.

Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Wake up next morning and pour a strong cup of coffee. Get the dough out of the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. This dough starts out VERY sticky, but the more you work with it, the easier it becomes to use. You'll fall in love with it by the end.

Cut into desired shape. As a piece of advice, a good investment in baking is a silicone pastry mat. It allows you to make a workspace anywhere and cleanup is super easy. Just roll up the mat, dump your flour, and clean the mat in the sink. I got mine from Pampered Chef and I LOVE it.

Place your cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. I use parchment paper to make things easy. If you're making cookies with sugar or sprinkles instead of icing, now is the time to use them. Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees, until edges are lightly brown. Cool on wire racks.

These cookies are simply fabulous. They have a very light taste, which make them perfect for frosting because they are not too sweet.

I hate to admit it, but the pictures of me making the frosting got lost in the abyss of "Oh my cupcake, I'm going to be late to the party!" It's not hard to make, but the taste is a bit, well, awful.

Directions

1. Place sugar and milk in a bowl. Stir until mixed thoroughly. Add corn syrup and mix well.

2. At this point, attempt to flavor this to your tasted. I used vanilla, imitation butter flavoring and even a bit of salt. It improved the icing, but I never could get the icing to lose it's overwhelming sweetness.

3. It's time to frost the cookies! This is supposed to "pour" but it's so thick that it becomes impossible. Dye the icing according to your color scheme. Using a spoon, I poured a little bit on each cookie and spread the frosting to the edges with the back of my spoon. Sprinkle the cookie before the icing has time to dry.

 

In the end, everything turned out okay. The icing dried to a nice, smooth finish. Heck, it didn't even taste that bad when eaten with the cookie. I barely made it to the party and my fingers were stained in a rainbow of colors, but everything looked great and the kids loved all of the treats.

Colors used:

Wilton's Lemon Yellow Icing Gel

Wilton's Rose Icing Gel

Wilton's Teal Icing Gel

Recipe Sources:

Cookies: My friend Meghan and wherever she found the recipe

Icing: Wilton

I hope you enjoy these! Good luck!

Rosie

My Niece's Birthday Party Part 1- The Cupcakes!

On August sixth, my cute little niece Jillian turned the big two. Of course my sister, knowing what a little baker I am, set me to the task of making the cupcakes and the party favors. It was a luau theme so I got to have a little fun with the decorations. I'm going to begin with the cupcakes.

I made 48 cupcakes. They were tie dyed using three shades a piece and I did four different color combinations. I then iced them with homemade buttercream icing and decorated them with sprinkles, flamingo picks and parasols.

 

 

Jillian enjoying a cupcake with icing in her favorite color-- Pink!

Tie dying cupcakes are super easy but look spectacular. It all comes down to the color combination; mix warm tones with cool tones so they pop.

The turquoise really stands out next to the orange and yellow.

Here's the ingredients you'll need to make your cupcakes:

-Your favorite recipe for a white cake. Due to time constraints, I just used a french vanilla mix.
-Food coloring gels. I use Wilton icing gels.
-A bowl for each color.
-A buttload of toothpicks.
-Icing
-Decorations

Make up your cake mix and divide amongst the bowls. To color the batter, take a clean toothpick and dip it in your chosen gel. Drag it through the batter, then dispose. Never reuse a toothpick but instead use a new, clean pick if you need to deepen the color.

To tie dye, put one spoonful of colored batter at a time, until cup is 2/3 full. Take a toothpick and drag through cupcake to create a marble effect.

First color combo: Pink, yellow and orange

This was not my favorite combo, but it actually baked up very pretty. Like I mentioned above, having one cooler shade would have helped.






Second color combo: Pink, purple and turquoise

Third color combo: Pink, green and orange

Fourth color combo: Yellow, turquoise and orange (or the Scooby-doo mix :D)

Bake cupcakes according to the recipe's instructions. When done, your cupcakes should look something like this:

Let cool on a wire rack. Meanwhile, make your frosting.

Ingredients
2 sticks butter, room temperature
2 cups Crisco shortening
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 lbs powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon meringue powder

 Place the butter, Crisco and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Beat until incorporated (about 5  minutes).

Add your butter flavoring, almond and vanilla extracts. Mix together well. Gradually add about a pound of powdered sugar and the meringue powder and mix. Next, gradually add a 1/2 cup of powdered sugar at a time until the icing has reached the consistency you need. For a hot summer day, I used the full two pounds and it worked well, though we tried to only keep them outside long enough to let the kids get some.

If dying the frosting different colors, divide into bowls and dye using the same method as with the batter. If you find that the icing is a bit to thick, add a little milk to thin it out. Using Wilton's 1M decorating tip, fill an icing bag 3/4 full. To create a pretty swirl, start at the outer edge and swirl inward. Pipe another, smaller swirl on top of that. Decorate cupcakes as desired. This makes enough icing for 36 cupcakes.

 

Gels I used:
Wilton Teal
Wilton Rose
Wilton Lemon Yellow
Wilton Violet
Wilton Leaf Green

Wilton Orange

 How cute is the inside of that cupcake? I hope you have fun making many color combinations of your own!

Good luck!

Rosie

Easy as Lemon Icebox Pie

Several months ago, my boyfriend's mother asked me if I could make her a lemon icebox pie. Even though I had never made one before, I was happy to oblige, especially after I found this delicious sounding recipe.

Well, my mom got a craving for lemon pie the other day and I knew just the recipe to use. This is an incredibly quick and easy pie to make which means its a great choice when baking for luncheons or parties.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 14 oz cans sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 cups heavy cream
6 tablespoons confectioners sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium sized bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon. Mix in the melted butter. Using a spoon or your fingers, gently pat into the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate.

Place crust in oven and bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Place on a wire rack and cool.

In a large bowl, combine the condensed milk, egg yolks, lemon zest and juice with a wire whisk. Pour into the cooled crust.

Bake pie for ten minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack before chilling pie in the fridge for 30 minutes.

When pie has cooled, whip the heavy cream and confectioners sugar until stiff peaks form. Attempt not eating the entire bowl of delicious homemade whipped cream before getting it on the pie.

Dump the whipped cream on top and spread to the edges. Be generous as you will want more rather than less. I might actually make extra cream the next time I make this recipe.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Devour.

Yum! Admittedly, this is not the best picture of the pie. This was the first piece cut and it doesn't nearly do justice to just how pretty the layers are. The cinnamon really makes the pie crust stand out and the overall pie is just delicious. A warning, though: This pie is RICH. Be careful or you just might have to be rolled away from the table.

Original recipe is here.

Good luck!

Rosie