Will for Mother’s Day has been updating my blog so I can switch to https and Google will start indexing my blog again (maybe). Yay! He’s almost done so we’ll have a grand unveiling (maybe). Spoilers, it will look exactly the same, it’s just backend changes.
This is Julius’ last week of Kindergarten. I can’t even believe it. It’s funny, I started to think of Julius as such a big guy compared to Patricia, but seeing other young kids through his classes, cub scouts and other activities it’s clear he is just a little guy. He is little with a big personality though! (Just like Patricia.) His latest is trying to learn music. He desperately wants to play an instrument so we bought him a harmonica and he was getting pretty good at the tabs! Until he lost it. This weekend at the library he realized there were instruments you could take out from the library. So he borrowed a ukulele from the library. Luckily my BFFITWWW Amy came over with Chris and the kiddos this weekend and tuned it for him. She is the opposite of music clueless like myself (as proof she has a conservatory in her house with tons of different instruments). Being musically talented she also taught him a few chords on the ukulele, which he has somehow remembered! I’m actually pretty impressed.
Friends and cookies!
Patricia is such a cheeky lady. She really doesn’t like to be told she’s doing something wrong, and will break down crying. When I think I’ve really ruined her day though she seconds later will bounce back as her happy bubbly self. She always wants to help (maybe this is a phase with children, because Julius used to be a big helper and he’s less interested now). This weekend we went to Ikea and she helped Will lift the boxes onto the cart proclaiming, “I’m a big strong lady”. Best affirmation I’ve ever heard, I’m going to start using that one.
This weekend was also Julius and Patricia’s “Gymnastics Extravaganza”. It was super cute – each kid did a demonstration of their gymnastics skills and then got a medal and ice cream. They had little beach pail sets you could get as a congratulations prize but they looked like things that would be thrown away so instead I decided to make them cookie bouquets. They weren’t super hard and they came out really, really cute! I made them the night before the performance, let them dry overnight and then packaged them in the morning. Both kids loved them which made me incredibly happy! (Sometimes it’s hit or miss what the kids are going to like or not.) There are tons of cookie bouquets on pinterest and these are the ones I used as an example!
Cookie Bouquets
What You’ll Need (for 2 small bouquets):
- 1/4 batch of my favorite sugar cookie recipe.
- kabob skewers (with the ends trimmed)
- biscuit cutters
- 1 batch stiff royal icing (I use the one on the back of the Wilton meringue powder as is)
- piping bag and 104 tip
- pink food coloring
- white non pareil sprinkles
- brown kraft paper (upcycled is best – mine was saved from an amazon package)
- white tissue paper (upcycled is best – mine was from Julius’ dance costumes)
- Dried babys breath (optional – but I have a lot of this drying in my basement from the party)
- Upcycled ribbon
- Roll out your sugar cookies to 3/8″ thick (this is a bit thicker than I usually make) then cut with a 2.5″ biscuit cutter.
- Press a kabob skewer down flat into the back of the cookie dough circle.
- Take a piece of dough and press over the skewer to enclose it.
- Flip over and gently press so it’s flat, place on prepared cookie tray.
- Repeat for other cookies (I made 9, but 1/4 of a recipe could have make around 14 or 15).
- Bake for 6-8 minutes (7 in my oven) until barely golden on top.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- As cookies are cooling, prepare frosting. I divided the batch in half and made two different shades of pink (one barely pink). Place frosting into frosting bag fitted with 104 rose piping tip.
- The other tutorial doesn’t describe how to make the petals other than by holding the fat part of the tip down. I have never piped this kind of petal with a 104 tip, only rose petals, which you do vertically, so this was a bit challenging. I made a video, but I was doing it myself so I’m not sure you can tell what I was doing so I’ll try to describe it. The good news is even the ones “I screwed up” still look great. So just do your best.
- Hold the cookie in one hand and the piping tip in the other
- With the fat part of the piping tip facing “down” pipe a ‘c’ shape, turning the cookie to facilitate this.
- Continue to pipe c-shaped petals around the edge of the cookie.
- Move just inside the other petals, but overlapping (ideally overlapping where two petals meet). Pipe more petals in a ring.
- Repeat until you get to the center of the flower where the petals are all overlapping (for my size cookie that was the third ring).
- Place a pinch of non pareils in the center.
- Repeat step 9 for the other cookies then let dry overnight.
- To wrap, first make sure your upcycled paper is nice and flat. I always iron my recycled paper on cotton setting (just don’t hold the iron in one place). It works great to get out crinkles or folds.
- Place 3 cookies in a rough bouquet shape on your paper.
- Cut the recycled paper into rectangles that are a couple inches wider than the bouquet, and a few inches taller than the bouquet.
- Fold tissue paper to fit roughly on top of this rectangle.
- Place down brown paper followed by white tissue paper, followed by bouquet. Tuck a few sprigs of baby’s breath behind the edible flowers if desired.
- Carefully scrunch the brown paper and tissue paper over the bouquet stems. Tie a ribbon around the stems to hold in place.
- Deliver to your favorite star!
Julius Gymnastics Star
Patricia gymnastics star (pleased as punch)
Patricia enjoying her cookie with Meemah and Meepah
2 Responses to In Bloom