Soft Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

I made these soft gingerbread cookies for a summertime birthday party instead of the usual decorated sugar cookies that I always enjoy making. They smelled so good and made it feel like the winter holidays.

I have noticed that some people prefer soft gingerbread cookies, while others prefer crispy gingerbread, so make sure to have both types within each batch. It is quite easy to make them soft or crispy depending on how thick or thin you roll the cookie dough and also how long they are baked for.

For the dough, I use this perfect gingerbread cookie recipe from Martha Stewart: Gingerbread Snowflakes
I use it as both my soft gingerbread cookie recipe and my crispy gingerbread cookie recipe.
For the icing, I used this Royal Icing Recipe.

I usually don't cut out large cookies such as the ones the recipe indicates so I usually get about 40 cookies instead of 16. The cookies I make tend to be in the 3 to 4 inch range.

Using the Martha Stewart gingerbread cookie recipe, I end up with 3 disks of dough so I bake each one separately. I roll out the first disk to 1/4 inch thickness, cut out the shapes and bake according the instructions from the recipe. For the second disk, I roll it out just a tad thinner, cut out the shapes and bake it for about 2 minutes less. These turn out a bit crispier for those who like crispy gingerbread cookies. For the third disk, I roll the dough out just a bit thicker than 1/4 inch and bake it for 2 minutes longer than the original batch. These will produce soft gingerbread cookies for those who prefer them to be soft.

That is my easy way of getting crispy gingerbread cookies, soft gingerbread cookies and perfect gingerbread cookies all from mixing up one batch of Martha Stewart's gingerbread cookie recipe. Everyone gets the gingerbread cookie they prefer too!

Monogrammed Cookies for a Communion

I made these monogrammed cookies for a communion. I mixed the round monogrammed cookies with decorated cross shaped sugar cookies. The colors for the communion were chartreuse and white so I tried my best to tint the royal icing the shade of chartreuse. It was a bit tricky because I had never made such a specific color before. I usually just make cookies any color that I mix up randomly. Luckily, I came across Sweet SugarBelle's wonderful royal icing color chart. For chartreuse colored icing, it said to mix 5 parts lemon yellow and one part leaf green, so I did. SugarBelle has many, many fabulous tips and is such a talented cookie decorator. I'm so glad I went searching for a way to make chartreuse colored icing and discovered her blog!

With my first attempt to make a "specific" icing color, I think it turned out quite well as my friend was happy with the results.

Butter Cookies

These are storebought butter cookies that come in a round tin. They are inexpensive and taste quite good. I used to eat them all the time as a child and haven't had them for many years, so I thought I would purchase a tin to snack on. I must say that they don't taste exactly the same as they used to, but I'm not sure if it is my tastebuds that have changed or the butter cookie recipe itself. One thing that is different is that the rectangular and the pretzel shaped cookies used to have coarser sanding sugar on them and now they have a finer sugar on them.

{Divine.ca} Home Bakery Bundle Giveaway

This post brought to you by Dr. Oetker. All opinions are 100% mine.

As much as I love baking, when it comes to pizza, I often go with the store bought frozen variety. It doesn't cost nearly as much as take-out and is so convenient to enjoy as a snack, easy lunch or dinner. I have tried making my own pizza before, but have always had an issue with the crust. It would either stick to the pan, be too crispy or just too soggy.

Fortunately Dr. Oetker has a new type of pizza now available at all major grocery retailers across Canada. It's called Dr. Oetker Panebello Bakery Crust Pizza  an   and for a pizza that is made with such high quality ingredients, it is extremely well priced at only $5.99 to $6.49. The crust is exactly what I have been looking for. It is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, just like fresh artisan bread you would get from a bakery.

 If you aren't too fond of making your own pizza or would simply like a break, there is a fabulous giveaway for the chance to win 1 of 5 $500 Home Bakery Bundles. Feel free to visit Divine.ca Home Bakery Bundle Giveaway and enter online between May 4, 2011 to June 13, 2011.

Each Prize Pack is worth $500 and includes:

- 8 Coupons for 2 of each of the new Dr. Oetker Panebello Pizza Varieties including:

• Vegetables and GoatsCheese
• CountryPepperoni
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• Bruschetta

- 1 Breville Toaster Oven

- 1 Pair of Dr. Oetker Oven Mitts

- 1 Dr. Oetker Pizza Cutter

- 1 Williams-Sonoma Pizza Peel

*The contest is open to Canadian Residents Only.

Good Luck! 

Sparkly Springtime Butterfly Cookies

I made these shimmery, sparkly springtime butterfly cookies since the weather is warming up and it's so wonderful that the butterflies will be out and about soon.

I simply cut mini butterfly shapes out of sugar cookie dough, piped pink, orange and yellow royal icing onto them and dipped them in matching sanding sugar. I love decorating cookies with different colored sanding sugars, because it is such an easy and inexpensive way to make them so shimmery and pretty. They were so delicious and the sanding sugar (or as some may call it, decorating sugar) added an extra crunch to them!

10 Tips on Successful Cookie Decorating

I was decorating sugar cookies this weekend and noticed that there were many things that would help me improve when it comes to sugar cookie decorating. There are so many ways to decorate sugar cookies, but I usually use royal icing and sometimes sugar sprinkles too.

Here are 10 simple tips that I think would have helped me decorate the cookies I made this past weekend:

1. Plan out the design that will be piped onto the cookie ahead of time

2. Make a list of all the icing colors and approximately how much of each color you will need before tinting the icing

3. Have all the supplies you need, ready and in one spot

4. Have a clean spacious area where you will be decorating the cookies. For instance a kitchen table, or countertop

5. Clean as you go

6. Decorate the cookies with friends or family so you have some good company

7. Listen to your favorite music while decorating the cookies

8. Have a few pictures of cookie designs on hand for inspiration

9. Practice piping the cookie design onto parchment paper first

10. Relax and have fun!

Do you have any tips on cookie decorating? Please feel free to share them in the comments section.

Happy decorating!

Gluten Free Cupcake

When I hosted a birthday party and was planning out the food to accomodate a few people who were on a gluten free diet, I had come across a small obstacle when it came to the birthday cake. Since most people attending the party were not on a gluten free diet, I figured it was okay to get a regular cake. What about those who could not eat the cake though? Fortunately, the bakery where I ordered the cake from also made cakes that are gluten free, because I wouldn't know where to begin if I had to make a gluten free cake. I opted for a giant gluten free cupcake (a cupcake cake) that would serve 4 to 6 people which was perfect. The guests were all happy and everyone got to have some cake!

I didn't get a chance to try a piece of the gluten free cupcake, but heard it was delicious.