Old-fashioned butter cookies

Surprise, I can bake and not just cook! This post is going to be a lot more different from most of my other posts. The biggest reason is this was my first attempt at any real baking. I am not the baker in my family, let me tell you that much. I don't enjoy baking nearly as much as I enjoy cooking. With cooking, I can be more creative and experimental to get what I like. Baking has a small element of chemistry, where you do really need to measure out some ingredients because they will interact differently with other ingredients. Cooking allows more room for mistakes. I enjoy eating food better than snacks. For all these reasons, I always tend to cook and not bake. I only ever bake to give someone else the goods. Likewise, I'll bake if I am expecting company. Rarely do I bake and do a great job. So, when I decided to bake to make my sister-in-law cookies decorated like medicine for a get well care package, it was an overly ambitious project for me to take on. But, I did it! The cookies turned out great and the decorating was better than I expected, but still looks not that professional. I completely stole this idea from this sugardotcookies blog. All creativity came from her and I am astounded by how great hers look!

So below in this blog, I will share with you the cookie recipe I used and the links to learn how to do royal icing.

Ingredients for cookies:

• 3 cups sifted flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup soft butter
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 slightly beaten eggs

Method for cookies:

1. Sift dry ingredients and cut in butter
2. Add egg, milk, and vanilla
3. Chill dough if desired (not necessary)
4. Roll out on a floured surface 1/8 inch thick (or thicker if desired)
5. Bake on a lightly greased baking sheets in a 400 degree oven for 5-6 minutes
6. When cool, decorate

When it's time to decorate cookies, if you are up for making royal icing and flooding your cookies, I highly encourage you to check out this website to learn more about making the icing and the beginning ideas to the consistency to decorate: http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/blog/2011/04/royal-icing-101-or-all-roads-lead-to-rome/

I don't have nearly enough experience to try to pretend how to tell you the best way to do icing! Maybe in a few months!

royal icing

can you find eggy?

the finished project: making it look like a prescription jar !