I'm in full party planing mode now for Liam's birthday.
While I haven't been as productive this weekend as I should have been, I did knock some tasks of my list. I purchased napkins, lanterns, tissue paper for pom poms, table cloths, cups and cutlery at Party City. I ordered cupcake liners and paper straws from etsy. I worked on a few printables in PhotoShop while watching Julie and Julia & I finally did a test run on some cookies that I really want to make for Liam's party.
I may be crafty, but I don't bake. But when I saw these, I knew I had to give them a shot:
So, yesterday afternoon, while the boys were napping, I did. I bought a roll of sugar cookie dough (hey, you've got to cut corners somewhere!) at the grocery store, rolled it out, used a cup to cut out circles and baked them.
I used this recipe to make royal icing. Since this was a practice round, I made some lime green icing (it looks yellow on my screen) and some light blue icing. Once the icing was at a soft peak, I piped a circle around the edge of the cookie using a pastry bag and a #3 tip.
Then I watered down the icing (a few drops at a time) to make it runny. I bought a squirt bottle used for candy making to flood the cookies, but couldn't find it, so I ended up scooping it on with a spoon. The first few, I put too much icing on and it started spilling over the piping, but then I got the hang of it!
While the icing was hardening, I microwaved a handful of orange candy melts and dipped Goldfish Graham crackers in them.
Then, using some icing, I attached the fish to the cookies & piped on some bubbles.
Not too bad for a first attempt!
Goals for the next batch (I plan on making them the weekend before his birthday):
- Have a steady hand when piping on the outline. I got better with each cookie, but I still think it could use some work.
- Find a deeper color for the blue background-- I just used a few drops of blue gel food coloring that I bought at the grocery store, but Michaels/Hobby Lobby offer so many other options in their baking section. I'd love to find a more vibrant color.
- Practice piping the bubbles on-- these look messy. I used icing with a soft peak, but it had been sitting out for a little while and might have been a little harder than it should have been. It was kind of gooey when I added the bubbles, so it was tough to get clean little circles. I'm not sure if the icing was too stiff or not stiff enough-- will practice a bit with different consistencies. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Overall, I'd call them successful & I'm looking forward to serving them at the party!
