My A-HA! moment

Have you tried to make cake balls? Let's start with the name...as my cousin, Tara, wisely pointed out, "cake balls" is a little scary sounding. They are hereby renamed, "cake truffles." Much better!

OK...I was getting a little frustrated because my cake, um, truffles weren't smooth like I'd seen on some other blogs. Mine tasted good, but they were lumpy.

These are Gingerbread Truffles (really yummy!) made with a gingerbread mix, baked and mixed with chocolate frosting. My A-HA! moment....shortening! I added a 1/2 teaspoon of Crisco to the melted candy melts and stirred until it melted into the chocolate. (I melted them in a bowl over barely simmering water.)

Voila! Smoother coating...and much easier to work with! This time, I used a toothpick to dip the cake into the chocolate. This worked great, but I was left with an uncovered area on the top. My original idea was to flip it to be on the bottom, but that didn't work. Any suggestions? You can see how I covered it up with a dollop of chocolate on top and sprinkles. :)

I'll be out-of-pocket for a while...a little traveling and moving (yay!) is keeping our December busy, so MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!! Have a wonderful holiday!

Cookie packaging

Have you seen the cookie boxes from Martha Stewart? Oh my goodness....they are so cute! She has a few different designs. They are available at Michael's and WalMart (in the craft/fabric area)!

Here's the interior box...I love that little scalloped edge and there is a piece of polka-dot, waxed tissue paper for each box.

That box slides into the exterior box and it comes with pre-cut ribbon and a coordinating label.

When I went back to Michael's for more last weekend, they were sold out. :( So, if you see them and you're giving cookies this year, snatch them up while you can!!!

Christmas Ornaments

Some pics of Christmas ornament cookies...
I was going for a Tiffany-blue here, but I don't think it quite worked. I mixed Sky Blue and Leaf Green.
I think the gold sparkling sugar adds a lot to these cookies. They looked a little plain to me before adding it. (Now that I am typing above all those dots and squiggles, it seems funny to call them plain, but trust me here.) :)

Here's a picture of my "sanding sugar station." In the silver cup, I have a mix of meringue powder and water. With my kids' paintbrush, I paint on the mixture and sprinkle on the sanding sugar over a coffee filter. After a several cookies, I use the coffee filter kind of like a funnel to pour the excess sugar back into the container. It doesn't roll off like it would on a plate or a paper towel.

Ateco is the brand of meringue powder I use. It is difficult to find since Sur La Table quit carrying it (grrr!), but instead of driving down to the cake decorating store, I ordered it from Amazon. It ships from a different company and I was thrilled when I ordered it on a Monday and it arrived on Friday!!! I highly recommend it!

Next year...

Next year, I want to make these....
They are from Martha Stewart, of course! :) A whole tree in cookie ornaments would be so fun and I bet it would smell so good!

Will someone remind me next year? ;)

Frozen assets

My frozen assets! I love that sugar cookies can be frozen!

I have a lot of cookies that I want to give and mail next week, but I knew I wouldn't have time to do it all at once. So, last night while watching The Year Without a Santa Claus and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys (not recommended, BTW...stick with the original), I baked cookies...over 70 of them.

The cookies were bagged in gallon-size freezer baggies, between layers of wax paper (did you know Thomas Edison invented that...what a great guy!). Then, these were placed in freezer-safe plastic containers and will be ready when I am ready to ice them.

To thaw, just take them out of the freezer about 2 hours or more before decorating. (Do not refrigerate.)

Cookies already decorated with royal icing can also be frozen! This is great if you're planning a big party, just make your cookies in advance and pop in the freezer. Again, take them out a few hours before you need them, and you are all set. If you've bagged them, leave the cookies in the bags to thaw.

A holiday stand-by

I haven't started my Christmas baking yet, but I'm sure I will make at least 1 dozen package cookies sometime this month.

I love this cookie...it's cheerful and makes a great gift for just about anyone. I've made THOUSANDS of this cookie over the past nine years...take a peek at some of the variations...

The squiggly lines were made by dragging a toothpick through wet icing. For the holly leaves (I like the ones in the top pic best), I piped dots of royal icing onto the dried flood icing and then added leaves with a food coloring pen (Americolor Gourmet Writers).

And, of course, there are dots! To learn more about adding dots, click here.

Last year, I decided to change up the bow a little and add sanding sugar. Here's how to do it. I thought plain packages with the sugar would be cute, but ended up reverting back to dotty ones. :)This year, I think a light blue and red package would be really sweet!