Experiments in Royal Icing

I promise to stop baking one of these days.
Maybe next week.

I am sure you are missing my usual fluff intelligent and thought-provoking writing.

Besides, all this sugary goodness is not conducive to dieting.


But, be that as it may,

I made my first batch of practice cookies for Princess's party.
(I only ate a few.)

I found I love Bridget's recipe for the cookies! 

She is right, these are the perfect cookie for frosting; buttery, but not too sweet.

Look how evenly they baked. Try it out. The recipe can be found here.

And don't worry, 

I'm not giving up my sour cream cookies any time soon, 

but for party cookies, I'm going with these. 

Did I mention how nice and even they baked. 

Oh yeah...sorry.

I don't have fancy cookie sheets, so I used an old messed up one to frost the cookies on.

I forgot it would not be the best for pictures. oops. 

Anyway, here's my piping. Not great, but it's my first attempt.

Let me just say, if you are thinking of trying this, to save money or time,

just go ahead and call your local baker.

Seriously. 

Just make the call already.

Don't even get me started on the supplies for this project.

After 3 trips to the store and one to my mom's kitchen, I thought I had all my stuff. 

So I mixed up the Royal Icing.

So far, so good, 

except that I buy my powdered sugar by the bag, not by the box. 

uh-oh

I do have a scale down in the candle shop but I was too lazy busy to haul down there, so I winged it.

Dang!

I did my best to estimate a pound, but

it was a little stiff.

I added some water, but I can't be sure it turned out the way it was supposed to.

Still, it turned out well, in my mind.

But then I somehow misplaced the piece that screws the tip into the piping bag. Doh!

So I resorted to this little piping gadget I bought at one of the school fundraisers. 

It looks like one of those cereal feeders moms used to force feed babies with in the 70's. 

Thank God we're over that now!

(ask me what I really think about that! LOL)

my first attempt at flooding. Note to self: use more frosting!

Let's just say a cereal feeder is not the best tool, which is why I have never seen Martha Stewart using one, I guess.

And also maybe why it was $2.00. Oh well.

Here's the result.

All in all, I thought they turned out really well for a first attempt.

And here's what happens to the baker when she pipes cookies with the wrong tip on the wrong tool at 2 am:

She forgets how to take pictures, use a flash or focus a lens. She is exhausted and half-drunk.

She may have fallen off the dieting wagon and eaten a cookie or two.

Like I said:

Call the baker now!