Purim Masks

Purim celebrates the rescue of the Jews of ancient Persia from a plot to destroy them as told in the Book of Esther, which is read at this time. Purim is a joyous holiday, celebrated by wearing of costumes, giving gifts to friends, giving to the poor, and socializing. 

So in the spirit of this holiday I made gingerbread masks.  I made gingerbread because I think this is a cookie that should be made all year round not just for Christmas -- plus one of my sister's LOVES gingerbread.


The recipe I used is modified from my favorite Betty Crocker's COOKY Book.  I mentioned this book in my Yoga Cookie blog for Frosting for the Cause but I always need to always give it credit.   This book is falling apart and held together with an elastic but still has great cookie recipes and I love that is must be over 40 years old (no publication data in the book).

The Gingerbread recipe is:

1/3 cup shortening (I use Earth Balance for a healthier trans fat free cookie)

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 1/2 cups dark molasses

2/3 cup cold water

7 cups flour -- maybe a little less -- I always use Five Rose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. allspice

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix shortening, sugar and molasses thoroughly.  Stir in Water.  Blend all dry ingredients; stir in. Chill.  Now the recipe calls for 7 cups of flour but I probably used about 6.5 cups in the recipe and the other half cup for rolling the cookies out.

Heat oven to 350.  Roll dough 1/4" thick on lightly floured board.  Cut with gingerbread boy cutter or other favorite shape cutter (in this case I used a mask with eye cut outs which I got at Copper Gifts).  Bake 10 to 12 minutes.  I think this made about 3 dozen masks but the number of cookies, of course, depends on the size of the cookie cutter and this mask is a pretty nice size.


Materials Needed for Decorating :
· royal icing – my new favorite royal icing is made with Ateco meringue powder — it tastes like marshmallows. I coloured the icing white, purple and black -- but also had some other colours left over from some birthday cookies I was making so I used that too for some polka dot masks which looked pretty cute -- I do love those polka dots and could probably polka dot just about any cookie
· piping bag and round tips I probably used a variety from #1 to #4
· Wilton White Pearlized Sugar Pearls

· Wilton Pearlized Sprinkles in Gold & Silver

· Wilton Sprinkles in Black and Purple

· purple disco dust

· dragées in gold & silver

· candy tweezers to put it all together – you could use your fingers but I find the tweezers way easier for manipulating the small candy decorations

Decorate as you wish and have fun creating delicious disguise mask cookies.

Happy Purim! 

Polka dots are just cute on everything!

And the Oscar Goes To...

...ticket sugar cookies and popcorn brownies.  Oscar parties are becoming so popular.  It is fun to have the your menu reflect the nominated films or movie theme in general.  So in that spirit, I made sugar cookies that look like old fashion movie tickets and put the names of all the nominated best picture films AND brownies decorated like popcorn bags (using a standard vanilla buttercream, red sprinkles for the stripes and mini marshmallows (white and yellow) as well as popcorn flavored jelly belly beans for the popcorn).


I know lots of people fill out Oscar ballots at their parties -- I somehow came across this very cool Oscar Bingo which is a very fun idea to keep guests entertained (other than commenting on the dresses and jewels).  


And the Oscar goes to... eating lots of popcorn (my favorite), cookies and brownies and having a red carpet time with whoever you choose.

Frosting for the Cause -- Breathe, Chocolate Brownie, “OM” Cookies

I'm so excited because today I am a guest baker / blogger on Frosting for a Cause. 

It's a wonderful site with new creative, tasty baking ideas everyday, and best of all, it raises funds for and awareness of the fight against breast cancer.  

At some point today, please take a moment to look at the site and please try to remember to "breathe".

Conversation Sweet Hearts

 Remember the old fashion "Sweet Hearts"?  Apparently they have never gone out of fashion (sort of like the sock monkeys) and they are now called "Conversation Hearts".  


So I made some for Valentine's Day but decided they could be great any time! 

I used the second smallest heart cutter from this Wilton set -- the smallest one would have worked too but I thought I could get better "conversation" on the slightly larger one -- and I was right.   


The cookies ended up being around 2" x 1.5" or a perfect bite size cookie with enough room to write fun expressions from the traditional, "kiss me" and "be mine" to the more hi-tech "email me" and "LOL".  

These were fun to make and looked cute all  packaged up.

Have a great SWEET HEART CONVERSATION on Valentine's Day!


Make sure you tell someone (and that someone may be a boyfriend or husband, girlfriend or wife, mother, father, brother, sister, old friend or dog or cat or bird) that you love them.

Sock Monkey Love

I had tons of stuffed animals as a kid, but only two have survived -- an original Snoopy and this sock monkey, "Trixie".  Who knew that sock monkeys would be even more popular today then they were when I was growing up? So when thinking of cute Valentine's Day cookie ideas that fit the theme but break from the heart tradition, I thought of the timelessness of the sock monkey --with a little heart, of course.

Use your favorite sugar cookie recipe.

Cut and bake your cookies according to the recipe.

Materials Needed for Decorating:

• royal icing -- my new favorite royal icing is made with Ateco meringue powder (white or no colour for hat, hands, feet & mouth)
• large heart sprinkles
• candy eyes
• brown & white crystal sugar and brown sand sugar (mixed 1/3 each)
• large red round sprinkles
• clear corn syrup
• paint and pastry brushes
• candy tweezer

Using a # 3 tip, pipe in hat, mouth, hands and feet.

Add a red round candy sprinkle for the mouth.

Brush clear corn syrup on the cookie and cover with sanding sugars.

Add the final details of eyes and the heart and let dry over night before packaging and sharing with your LOVE ones.

This if forsure my new favorite cookie.  It's cute and fun and reminds me of my childhood.

Did you have a sock monkey as a kid?  Let me know and have great weeks planning something special for Valentine's Day.

I will try to post some other ideas on the Flour Child Facebook site [+] during the week.

Lovey Cupcakes

In order to keep up, I really should be adding Valentine's Day cookies to my blog.

For every holiday cupcakes are in order -- Valentine's Day is no different.

These cookies are a basic sugar cookie.

To make the chocolate royal icing, add brown colour gel AND cocoa powder -- it makes a great colour and yummy taste.

The pink cupcake tops are always cute and some heart sprinkles make the cookies quite festive.

Super Bowl, Love & Chocolate - A February Trio

I really know NOTHING about Football but I know the Super Bowl is a BIG deal (or, depending on your intonation, big DEAL) and it is on Sunday February 6, 2011.


People throw parties on Super Bowl Sunday -- and where there are parties, there needs to be cookies. So, I made these chocolate sugar cookies in the shape of footballs and hearts to appease all football fanatics and their loved ones -- because everyone knows that the way to someone's heart, who is totally disinterested in football, is with chocolate.  And, the best part is that these cookies totally taste like brownies.

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup all-purpose flour


Preheat oven to 375.
Beat together butter, brown sugar, cocoa powder, milk and vanilla until well combined.
Beat in baking soda and flour.
Shape dough in a ball.
Roll out on cocoa and flour mixture (just a bit so the dough does not stick to the work surface).
Shape and bake for 5 minutes.

The footballs are not super huge, and while I am a super fan of the big sugar cookie, I still think these are a nice sized cookie.  The recipe is not very big but can be doubled (and I don't say that about very many recipes).

To decorate I used royal icing, a #6 tip for the football ends and a #3 tip for the laces.

I really liked the way the cookies came out and bagged up with 12 perfectly yummy brownie football cookies in a bag.

But I realized they needed a bit more love so I added in a chocolate heart with white frosting and pink & red heart sprinkles -- because really LIFE IS BETTER WITH SPRINKLES!

However you spend February 6 or 14 or any day in February for that matter, try to include some love & chocolate to warm up this otherwise cold and dreary month.  It just dawned on me that that is perhaps why the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day are in February.

And, while the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day seem far away, they really are just around the corner, so if you are interested in ordering cookies, send me a quick note to arrange.

Don't forget to sign up to follow Flour Child on Facebook  -- not that I have really figured out what that means 100% but I do have a site that is working.  I think you can even sign up on the blog and all comments are welcome!