60th Birthday Party Cut Out Cookies

I have been really excited to share these cookies with you. I got the recipe from a blog that I follow (which I need to add to my list).

The Adventures of Sweet Sugarbelle Sugar Cookies

• 1 c. {two sticks} of REAL unsalted BUTTER, softened
• 1 1/2 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tsp flavoring {pick what you like, I prefer almond}
• 2 1/2-2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar.  Crack the egg into a separate bowl, and add the flavoring.  I use emulsions, but extract also works well. Add that to the butter sugar mixture and mix until the egg is thoroughly incorporated.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add little by little to the mixture.

I can tell the dough is ready when most of it sticks to the paddle.

When I touch it, it has a little give, but does not stick to my fingers.

Roll out on parchment to about 1/4 an inch thick, use flour for dusting as necessary.  Then, cut and bake at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes.  This version makes 2-2 1/2 dozen, doubled, it makes 4-5 dozen.

When they are cool, they are ready to decorate.

A few notes about Sweet Sugarbelle's recipe from Sweet Sugarbelle…

• The dough DOES not need to be refrigerated.  That’s why I like it. 
• The dough needs to rest a little after mixing, it will firm up a little bit after a minute or two
• The recipe doubles well
• Baking times are approximate.  You must KNOW your oven.  Watch them the first few times you bake them. Get a thermometer, and do not over bake.  If the cookies are browning you have gone too far.
• This dough can be flavored any way you like.
• The cookies freeze well
• There is a lot of leavener in these cookies.  This is not a typo.  The general rule is less leavener so they don’t spead, but I’ve never been one to follow the rules.
• This recipe does spread a little.  If you don’t like that add a little flour.
• Speaking of flour, start with 2 1/2 cups.  Add another 1/4 of a cup if the dough seems to sticky.
• If you don’t like salt, leave it out altogether.
• If you only have salted butter, use that and reduce the salt.
• I prefer decorating day-old cookies.  They are less likely to leach oil back into your icing if they have had a day or two to “dry out”.  They are still soft, however.

I also found a really helpful tutorial on how to roll out dough without the mess of flour. Cheryl at TidyMom is incredible. I may never use flour to roll out cookies again! I absolutely LOVE this method.

Anyway, moving on. I found the generic birthday party cutters, but I really wanted something special for my Dad's 60th birthday. So, I went to the local cake store. I found a beer glass, a milk bottle and a wine bottle. The wine bottle turned into a beer bottle with a little icing and the milk bottle turned upside down and into a better beer glass than the real beer glass. (I couldn't find a beer mug.)

The royal icing recipe I found at BakeAt350

Royal Icing

http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/2010/01/royal-icing-102-or-201-or-whatever.html 

(This will cover 2-3 dozen 3.5 inch cookies in 2 colors; I usually double this recipe.)

4 TBSP meringue powder
scant 1/2 c. water
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp light corn syrup
few drops clear extract (optional)



Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy.

Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine. (Do NOT skip the sifting!)

Add in the corn syrup and extract if desired. ( I think the corn syrup helps keep the icing shiny.)

Increase speed to med-high/high and beat for about 5 minutes, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form.


(You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) Do not overbeat.

Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing or divide and color using gel paste food colorings.

This "stiff" icing is perfect for outlining and even for building gingerbread houses and monogramming. To fill in your cookies, add water to your icing a teaspoon at a time, stirring with a rubber spatula, until it is the consistency of syrup. This technique of filling a cookie with thinned icing is called "flooding."


She also has some really great tips on her blog.

Birthday Celebration Cookies

For the beer bottles, I colored thick royal icing gray. Then I outline the label and a band across the neck of the bottle with the gray using a #3 tip. I flooded it with thinned gray icing. I should have dusted the gray here with the silver luster dust, but i forgot about it. Then after I let it set, I piped thick black lettering as it is on the real beer bottle with a #3 tip. Using a #2 tip I went back and piped white over the "Coor's" letters. I used a #1 for the fine lettering in white on the "Light". I used red icing for the very last layer of lettering. For the mountains, I initially piped them on, then took a stiff brush and muddled it up a little then re-piped the mountains. After it was all set and dry, I brushed on the luster dust.
For the beer glasses, I outlined and filled the bottom 3/4 of the glass with a mustard color icing. After that was completely set, I went back to do the white at the top (the head of the beer). I waited to do this so that I could immediately add dusting sugar to the white so that it looked more like foam.

Everyone really loved these cookies. Especially my dad. :-)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake and Cupcakes

My wonderful Dad turned 60 on Black Friday.
To celebrate his birthday we had a party, of course. I made Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes and a Pineapple Upside Down Cake. His favorite!
I am not entirely sure where this recipe came from, other than I got it from mother's recipe box when I got married and moved out. (I am not claiming ownership of this recipe in any way, although I did modify it to make cupcakes.)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 

1 can (8 1/4 oz) sliced pineapple (I used a 15 oz can and ended up using 7 rings and 1 cup of juice)

Maraschino cherries - halved (one half for each ring)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup unsifted flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Melt 1/4 cup of butter and mix with the brown sugar. Spread it into an 8 inch square pan (I used a 9 inch round, you could also use a cast iron skillet). Drain the pineapple, reserving the juice, and arrange the slices over the butter/brown sugar mixture. Place cherries in the center of each ring.

Cream the remaining softened 1/4 cup of butter and white sugar. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix until just combined.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

Alternate adding the flour mixture and the reserved pineapple juice (about a cup) to the butter mixture.Beat just until smooth.

Pour evenly over the fruit in the pan.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until the cake tests done with a toothpick.

Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes on a wire rack, then invert onto a serving plate. Be careful removing the pan so that your fruit doesn't stick to it (it can easily be placed back on the cake if it does).

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

Makes about 24-30 cupcakes

I melted 1/2 cup of butter and mixed with with 1 cup of packed browned sugar. Then, I line muffin tins with grease-proof cupcake liners and evenly spread each on with about 1 1/2 Tbsp of well-drained crushed pineapple. Then I topped each one with about 1/2 Tbsp of the butter/brown sugar mixture. 

YUMMY!

For the batter, I doubled the recipe above for Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I used the juice from a 15 oz can of crushed pineapple and I omitted the cherries. Add the cake batter to the pineapple in the muffin cups. I filled them to within a 1/4 inch from the top of the pan. Than bake at 350 for about 15-17 minutes. They come out perfect. I did have to make more butter and brown sugar and use more pineapple for the batter that I had, but the juice from one can is all you need for the batter.

I topped them with caramel frosting.

Caramel Frosting

http://hoosierhomemade.com/zucchini-cupcakes/ 

Enough frosting for about 12 cupcakes

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 - 2 cups of powdered sugar

In a small saucepan on the stove, combine brown sugar, butter and milk. 

Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes until slightly thickened.

Let cool slightly before adding the vanilla.

Gradually add the powdered sugar, add as much or little as you like depending on what consistency you want. (Be aware that this icing with turn to stone once it cools and you have added too much powdered sugar.)

This is where I ventured from the original instructions. 

I poured the mixture into the mixing bowl of my stand mixer. I beat on medium until the mixture cooled. Once cooled I had to add a little more milk to thin it out so that I could get it through my piping bag. Add milk or more powdered sugar and beat until it is the consistency you need. It was still soft when I piped it onto the cupcakes but I immediately put them into the fridge to set up and they were wonderful, just not as pretty as a really fluffy icing. However, the FLAVOR makes up for the lack of fluff. These cupcakes are incredible with this icing!

Cherry Pie

In addition to the dressing, I also made a Cherry pie for Thanksgiving.
The crust was pretty easy. I used my favorite The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and found a recipe for Double-Crust Pie Dough. I don't have a food processor that I can use for baking (mine has been tainted with salsa) so I opted to use the hand-mixing method.

Double-Crust Pie Dough

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

8 Tbsp shortening, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and chilled

12 Tbsp unsalted butter, frozen in stick form until very firm

6-8 Tbsp ice water

Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the chilled shortening and press into the flour using a fork. Grate the frozen butter on the large holes of a box grater into the flour mixture then cut the mixture together with a pastry cutter or 2 butter knives, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle 6 Tbsp of ice water over the mixture and stir and press the dough together with a stiff rubber spatula until the dough sticks together. Add additional water a Tbsp at a time until it does come together if it doesn't the first time around.

Divide the dough in half and press into 4 inch rounds. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill about 1 hour. 

Let the dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out on a floured surface.

For the lattice top, roll dough out into a 10x13" rectangle and trim the edges with a pizza cutter. Using a pizza cutter and ruler, cut the dough into 1 1/4 inch wide strips that are 13 inches long. Transfer them to a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper and freeze them for about 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, line the pie plate with the first rolled out dough and brush with beaten egg white. The dump in 2 cans of cherry pie filing. (Frankly, the stuff is yummy and it would cost considerably more for me to make it from scratch than to use the stuff that is so good I could eat it out of the can.) 

Using the frozen strips of dough lay four parallel strips about 1 inch apart across the top of the pie filling. Weave the remaining strips, one at a time over and under the first four strips. Lift gently so they don't break. 

After strips thaw and soften for a few minutes, trim the over-hanging edges of dough to 1/2 inch with a pair of kitchen sheers or a knife. Tuck the edge under and crimp. Brush the top with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar.

Place the pie on a line baking sheet (just in case it bubbles over) and bake according to the directions on the can of pie filling. I covered the edges with foil to prevent burning and removed the foil in the last few minutes to they could brown.

Thanksgiving

Then Came Thanksgiving:
I can't even begin to express everything that I am thankful for this year. I can tell you that I am unbelievably thankful for such a wonderful family and that we were all able to gather on Thanksgiving and enjoy each others' company. We are all healthy and happy and have so much to be grateful for. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving.

SO, here is what I had to bring to dinner.
I made the dressing. I read somewhere that it is stuffing when it is cooked inside the bird and dressing when it is cooked outside the bird. So, I made dressing. But, not your normal generic Stove Top stuffing.

First, you take a cup of butter and melt it in a pot. Yes, a cup of butter. Then add a cup of chopped onions, a cup of chopped apples, a cup of chopped celery, a cup of dried cranberries and a cup of chopped walnuts. Let it cook a while until everything softens up and the house smells AMAZING!

Then stir in a whole box (that is 2-6 oz bags) of dressing. Add one whole can of chicken broth. Mix gently, but well. Then spread it out in a greased casserole dish and cover with foil. Bake as directed on the back of the box for stuffing casserole. I believe it says 350 for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake an additional 5-10 minutes or until browned on top. Yummy!

(This picture is before I let it brown completely on top.)

Green Bay Packers Cupcakes

I know it has been a while. I have been very busy with Thanksgiving and I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I have a few things to post today. I am actually at Starbucks writing this because my wonderful husband maxed out our bandwidth usage for out satellite internet by leaving his computer on all night to upload music. So, I have been unable to use our internet at home with any more speed than dial up. (Terrible for uploading pictures by the way.)


First of all, I made cupcakes! They were for a baby shower although they had nothing to do with the baby and everything to do with the Green Bay Packers. I made red velvet (the same recipe I used for the Star cake), chocolate, vanilla, and spice cake (the same as Jack the Pumpkin King). All of them had buttercream icing, although I added cocoa powder to make it chocolate for the chocolate cupcakes and about 1 1/2 to 2 tsp of cinnamon to a whole batch to make cinnamon buttercream for the spice cakes. Really yummy!

I made marshmallow fondant and added a bit of sifted cocoa powder to it to make the chocolate footballs. After I let them set a little while I added the white royal icing laces. They came out really cute!

They looked like Deviled Eggs until I added the footballs and sprinkles.