Oh What Fun At The - COOKIE BAKING PARTY 2014!

The Christmas Cookie Baking Party is over and we had so much fun.  Alot of hard work went into making all of our cookies, and I am so proud of all the bakers.  Some of them never baking before, some who bake all the time and the one professional, my niece, who decorated all the cookies while training my daughter in the art of frosting cookies.  We made 23 different kinds cookies, and our cookies turned out beautifully with everyone working together.  It was a long, almost 13 hour undertaking, but we did it, and did it to the sound of Christmas music playing in the background to keep our spirits up.  Here is a peek at how our day went.

First up THE RULES, yes I do have rules!  This is hardcore baking 101.

The ingredients all lined up and ready for choosing.  Over 100 cookie cutters and sprinkles to choose from. My sister and I shopped 'til we dropped to find alot of unique cutters and sprinkles.

 Here comes the fun part - the decorating.  My niece and daughter's beautiful artwork.  My daughter was in training to learn how to frost cookies.  I think she got the hang of it!

 You're a mean one Mr. Grinch! you turned out fabulous and so did the holly.

 A small bit of gingerbread cutouts and the Linzer's are ready to be dusted with sugar.

Stacking them up to be shared.

Sugar cookies and biscotti.

Frosted sugar and butter cookies.

 More cookies waiting to be shared

 Santa's Whiskers with toasted coconut.

COOKIES, COOKIES EVERYWHERE!  Here are 7 of the bakers.  There were 13 bakers in all who worked tirelessly to bake over 2000 cookies to share with family and friends.  A job well done by all!  Enjoy your cookies and your holidays ladies.

Cookie Mania!

I branched out a little last week, I baked cookies for someone to bring to a baby shower.  I have never done this before, the pressure was on.  I was doing it all myself, no help from anyone, was I up to the task?  I got all the cookie recipes out that were requested, and broke them down as to what days I would bake which cookie. I was a little nervous, would they turn out, would they like them, would they hold up.  It took four solid days of baking from morning to night to get them all done.  I baked 11 different kinds of cookies, decorated them and packed them up to be delivered. They don't look professionally baked or decorated, but they also don't look like they were commercially baked and full of preservatives, and that is what makes them unique and fresh.

Flour, flour everywhere and lots and lots of cookies to make and bake.

Cucidati - Italian Fig Filled Cookies

 Cranberry Orange Almond Biscotti

Lemon Pie Bowties

 Dark Chocolate Cake Cookies

 Lemon Butter Cutouts

 And more Lemon Butter Cutouts

Peanut Butter and Spritz.  Oops! Forgot to take pictures of Chocolate Chip, Butter Balls and Jam Filled Thumbprints, but they are there on the trays too.

 Linzer with Raspberry Filling

 All wrapped up in cellophane and ready to go.

Four trays of cookies, I hope they enjoyed them all!

Cookies, Cookies and More Cookies

My Christmas cookie party is coming up fast, so I started pulling out some of the cutters, sprinkles and jimmies, to see what I have and what I still need.  This is just a sample of some of the things we will use.  I found quite a bit of sprinkles/jimmies at Home Goods, they had some very unique colors and shapes.  One of the shapes I found, which I had never seen before, were gingerbread men sprinkles and candy canes, so I grabbed them.  IKEA had cookie cutters that are 3D, in the package are a big tree, a reindeer and a star.  I also found a reindeer face with antlers, he is really cute! And an angel turned to the side.  I found Food Writers, Wilton makes them, you can write on the frosting after it dries.  I have two cookie stamps, one says Merry Christmas, the other is a snowflake, and a Linzer cookie cutter.  We will be working hard that day so I like to prepare in advance and have everything lined up and ready to use.  I will also bake some things ahead of time.  The sweat shop will soon be open for business, there is a big list of cookies to bake, share and enjoy!

Another set of 3D cookie cutters and stamps.  Cookie cutter on one side then turn it over and stamp your cookie with the other side.  Pretty cool, found them at Sur la Table.  Santa, Snowflake, Christmas Tree and Snow Globe.  Each side has a different stamp so there are 8.