A Sweeter Sugar Cookie

Everyone loves sugar cookies, but this recipe is a small twist on the original. Honestly, I've never made regular sugar cookies, but I found this idea for Sugar Cookie Bars on Pinterest and they were delicious!

I've made these a few times now and everyone seems to love them! One day at lunch last year, my friends and I decided that we wanted to have a "buffet" for lunch, where everyone brought something to share with everyone else. I made these bars for that, brought all of the bars I made to school, and we (about ten of us probably, plus a few stragglers that wanted food) ate the entire thing! I was glad that everyone liked them. 

Tomorrow is my mom's big 50th birthday, so I thought it would be perfect to make a treat, especially because we haven't gotten any gifts yet...oops! We will, though, don't worry.


Anyways, here you go!

PHASE 1 - THE COOKIE

You will need:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2 cups granualted sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

5 cups flour

1 tsp salt

In a large bowl (I used the one that comes with my mixer), cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is fluffy.

Add the four eggs, one at a time, as well as the vanilla and almond extract.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking soda and add it to the wet ingredients gradually.

Spread the dough onto a GREASED baking sheet with raised edges. These are already a little bit hard to get out, so make sure you grease it! It will seem like you don't have enough dough to cover the entire thing, but you will if you get your hands dirty and put some muscle into it.

Bake the cookie in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes. I usually leave mine in for around twelve.

Let the cookie cool completely before spreading the frosting onto it. Since it was snowy the day I made these, I just covered it loosely and put it outside to cool. I made the frosting and ate lunch while it was out there and it was cool when I went out to get it. I guess you could say it takes a little while.

PHASE 2 - THE FROSTING

You will need:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
4 cups powdered sugar
5 Tbsp milk
1 pinch salt

In a large bowl (again, I used my mixer's bowl), beat the butter, vanilla, almond extract, and salt together.

Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix well. If you are using an electric mixer like I did, DON'T make it too fast.

Add the milk and mix until the frosting is smooth.

Technically, the frosting is finished after the above steps, but I like to add some pizazz to my cookies by adding food coloring and sprinkles. This way, they are more fun to look at and you can relate them to the season, a birthday, etc.

So, if you want to, add in the food coloring and mix it in as well.

Once your cookie is completely cool, spread the frosting onto it and cut it into pieces. I usually wait a little bit for the frosting to harden so it doesn't get all messed up when I cut it. Make sure you use a sharp knife rather than something like a butter knife! I've tried both and the sharp one works much better, trust me.

And you're all done! Enjoy!

NOTE:
If you are storing these, stacking them on top of each other will make them stick together and take the frosting off of the bottom ones. It makes them look kind of messy, but they taste the same.




Oh, and happy birthday to my favorite mom! :)

Even my kitty likes my frosting!

Sock it to 'Em

A few summers ago, my little sister, Carley, and I were home alone for the day. It was one of the first summers where we didn't have too much going on because we were getting too old for summer camps. Our dad works during the day  and our mom was on a business trip, so we were stuck at home with nothing (and I mean NOTHING) to do. It wasn't the first day we were home that week so we were pretty much out of ideas.

For some reason, at that age, I was obsessed with sock monkeys. For the record, this was a few years ago... I am not anymore in case you were wondering. I wanted a sock money SO bad. I remember seeing a giant one right before Christmas at Smith's and of course, Santa didn't bring it. Darn.

Anyways, I had this brilliant idea to make my own sock monkey! I looked online for a while and didn't find anything that Carley and I could make out of things we already had at home, since we couldn't drive to get supplies. All of the things I found for sock monkeys were complicated patterns that we had no idea how to make. Eventually, I came across a "how-to" for sock bunnies. It was really easy, but we kind of changed it up a bit. I must say, I was a little, crafty genius!

Here is how we made ours-

Materials:
one knee-high sock
embroidery thread
needle
two buttons
felt
stuffing
sharp scissors
hot glue gun

Pick a sock that is tall. Bunnies have long ears, right? So you want to have a sock that will give you long enough ears. The sock on the left is from Claire's and would work perfectly if I were going to make another one. I like to use fuzzy socks because it makes your bunny extra soft, too!

First, with the heel of the sock facing upwards, cut down the middle of the sock (through both layers) until a few inches above the heel. These are your ears, so you can decide how far you want to cut them after you have made the head as well.

Then, stuff the sock all the way up to the heel of the sock. In the picture above it would be to the bottom of the pink. Tie a piece of embroidery thread, ribbon, etc. around the top of your stuffing. This is where the bunny's neck will be.

Now, stuff the sock again. This time, make it up to about the top of the heel, maybe a little bit past it. This is your bunny's head. It is a lot easier to shape the head by shaping the stuffing and then putting it in the sock.

You should have already cut ears by now, so take embroidery thread and tie it around each ear to hold the stuffing inside. It kind of looks like your bunny has pigtails in its hair! Round the tops of the ears by cutting them with scissors. We sewed the tops after we cut them so they wouldn't fray at all.

Now you just need to add the finishing touches! Sew the two buttons on for eyes, glue a felt triangle for the nose and sew a felt piece full of stuffing for the tail. And you're all done!

Happy crafting!