Day 80 - A New Ingredient: Meringue Powder

If you know me, you probably know that I love to make sweet little cookies & cupcakes to celebrate all of life's joys and my sisters baby boy will most likely be welcomed into the world sometime tomorrow, so tonight - I bake.

I decided sugar cookies would be a fun thing to have a big tray of in their room for any visitors and of course for the new mom & dad to enjoy.

I have never officially made royal icing because using egg whites always sorta freaked me out so to frost sugar cookies I usually just whip up some Crisco (or butter), milk, powdered sugar and a bit of vanilla, but since these cookies would e unrefrigerated I decided tonight would be the perfect time to use meringue powder for the first time - you just mix it with powdered sugar & a bit of water and it's ready to go!(I also added in some vanilla and a bit of butter for flavor).

Earlier today I went and picked up a couple new cookie cutters along with the meringue powder at Mangelsen's. I found a baby duck, rattle, bottle and a square (that I planned to decorate like a block) and I already had a teddy bear so I was all set.

My original plan was to use store bought dough so I could spend more time on decorating, but after a struggle to cut roll & cut-out the store bought dough and then after seeing the results of baking them (a much rounder, puffier shape than I had in mind) I moved on to plan B (which should of been plan A) I called Quinn back in KC and got the recipe for my favorite sugar cookies - they hold their shape great and are so yummy.



Once the cookies were all baked & cooled (about 3 dozen). I whipped up the frosting and then separated it to add the colors - baby blue (blue with 1 drip of red), pale yellow and light green and I left plenty of white. The consistency was a bit thinner than I had in mind and so the colors blended a bit when I decorated, but the end results was still very cute - next time I will probably just do a touch less water.

I am so excited to meet my new nephew and to share these sweet treats with the new momma & dad and all their friends & family ~ enjoy!