I had this dilemma last week – it was Mother’s Day, my pottery berry bowls that I’d made for my Moms weren’t glazed or fired yet and every cookie-maker in town was booked until August.
How can people be so ahead of the game that they know they’ll need sugar cookies in August!? I don’t even know if I have underwear for tomorrow morning? (except that I keep 30 pairs just in case)
I digress; my gifts weren’t ready and now I couldn’t even bring a treat to my Mom’s to show her that I didn’t forget the day completely.
I had to improvise…
and by improvise I mean find a tutorial online that I stood a chance of actually being able to complete with a modicum of success.
Enter Emily at TheHutchOven.com:
Aren’t these sugar cookies fantastic! Almost too pretty to eat right? (almost)
Yes, by all indications of the above photo I was aiming high. Sky-high.
But her tutorial seemed simple?
This was attempt number 2; number one looked a tad more like a blob of pink diarrhea – so I’ll spare you.
But as I progressed – and watched her video tutorial 30 more times – I got better:
Sure, I used the wrong cookie cutter and my icing is a tad dry – but this is my first attempt at making buttercream icing flowers… EVER.
I won’t say that the icing isn’t a little heavy for the thickness of the cookies (a ratio of 2:1), but by the time I was 4 dozen sugar cookies in, I almost had the hang of it!
I was also left with four dozen cookies a week before I’m scheduled to see my Mom, and pants that are already too-tight.
The girls and I delivered cookies here and there to friends and neighbours and I polished off the last 3 this morning for breakfast (this will be the second pair of pants I’ve split this week) – and funnily enough, I still don’t have a surprise for Mom even on her belated Mother’s Day.
I’m a shitty kid.
A shitty kid that can almost pipe peony flowers on sugar cookies!
These are the links to the sugar cookie and icing recipe I used so you have them close by when you click over to see how easy Emily (TheHutchOven) makes it look.
The cookie recipe makes about 4 dozen 3″ cookies, but the buttercream recipe is enough to ice double that.
I won’t lie, cookie decorating will probably not be something I pursue full-time. This batch alone took hours to bake, ice and clean up.
(but it does feel kinda great to know I can if I have to!)
Thank you Emily at TheHutchOven.com – without your tutorials I’d be a shitty kid on Father’s Day too.
What I used:
Have a great one!
