It's a Jungle Out There...

I was so excited when a friend from work asked if I would make cookies for her daughter's baby shower. Her theme was going to be jungle animals, so of course I had to go out and buy a TON of animal cookie cutters. (The Wilton 50+ Animals package in fact...I know, I go a little overboard sometimes!)

This will be her first grandchild so I was honored to be given this opportunity, and also VERY nervous! It was my first official sugar cookie order! I jumped right in with the ideas and researched online. I decided I wanted to do elephants, alligators, giraffes, and lions. I also wanted to do something that had her grandsons name on it. Here is what they ended up looking like!

I was so proud of how they turned out and I think Robbin was too! To achieve the texture on the alligator and elephant I made sure the first layer of royal icing was completely dry before piping out the details. I think the alligator is my favorite! Although the elephant is pretty cute too....but then look at that nose on the lion....and those spots on the giraffe! Okay, so I can't choose. :)

Oh, and in case you're wondering...I used my beloved squeeze bottles for all of the decorating except for the details on the alligator and elephant. For their textures I used a piping bag and a #1 tip. OH! By the way, I found the BEST website online called Karen's Cookies. She sells a bazillion cookie cutters and....wait for it....SQUEEZE BOTTLES! These are not your ordinary squeeze bottles either, these babies come with couplers and allow you to switch out the tip so you can use all of your favorites! I am SO getting one.

Okay, that's enough of my babbling for now...happy baking everyone!

4th of July Cookies

Okay, so I'm a little behind. I haven't posted anything in awhile, so it's time to post 2 of my latest projects! I made these 4th of July cookies for a party we were going to with some friends. This was my first time using squeeze bottles to flood the cookies and I was very happy with how they turned out. I'm fairly certain I'm a little obsessed with the squeeze bottles now! They make clean-up SO easy and the tip on them is about the same size as a #3 decorating tip. In case you're wondering where you find such squeeze bottles, just go to your local craft store! I got mine at Michaels :).

Anyways, I used my traditional sugar cookie recipe (it uses lemon extract) for these cookies and made sure to roll them out a little thicker than usual. This helps them stay soft! My only disappointment with these was the color of "red" I was able to achieve. I desperately need to get some new food coloring paste - preferably the Americolor brand. The Wilton brand just can't quite ever get the right shade of red or black. Luckily with the group I was taking these cookies to that didn't matter! They just needed to taste delicious, and they did!