Cookie Date

It was supposed to be a play date. But they both made cookies for each other because "I love him" and "I love her too!" And ate pizza together outside at twilight.  And argued over whose turn it was to 'mop' the patio after watering the plants.  Plus they kissed at the end of the night, so, yeah, big stuff.

I bought these little mailboxes from the Target Dollar Spot to store cookies in after we were done.  There weren't that many left actually, but I think they are still cute.  Of course Avi was really worried because I didn't make one for her Mom too.  Oops.  I just used my glue runner to attach the heart doily and added thickers for their names.  I added some of Crate Paper's new chipboard stickers and the ribbon, also from target. 

I love all the valentines colors.  Pink, dark pink, red and a little aqua thrown in for good contrast.  And to make it a little less girly for Avinash.

I bought some foam and glitter stickers as well and let the kids decorate the mailboxes some more themselves.  A few minutes of diversion fun at least. 

The cookie dough needed to set up in the fridge for 30 minutes so I made that ahead of time.  The kids had a blast just squishing it in their hands, rolling it out and using the cookie cutters to make shapes. 

Of course, nothing could hold a candle to the fun and excitement of frosting and sprinkles time.  I had them do this over (cool) cookie sheets to *try* and contain the mess.  Honestly it wasn't that bad.  I had to wipe off the table and vacuum afterwards but it probably needed it anyway.

I used strawberry frosting from a can and made my own blue per Nisha's request.  I tried looking up recipes but ending up just mixing up a bowl of powdered sugar with a few drops of food coloring and cream.  It was easy and tasted fine.  Not sure if it would harden up like it normally would on sugar cookies because we never got to that stage.  The sprinkle set was also from Target.  I'm glad that I bought it the small container assortment set.  It helped to contain the chaos a little.

Avinash has been begging to make cookies with a friend for months now because of a cookie press commercial.  The actual cookie press was really difficult too use, the old fashioned cookie cutters worked out much better.

It worked out well with just the two of them as Nandini and Roshan only took part in the taste testing part of the activity.  The cookies are not to sweet on their own because they got plenty of frosting piled on top.  I made another batch with some chocolate chips sprinkled on top that were also really good.  I'm thinking of trying this with 50/50 wheat flour next time to alleviate the sugar guilt I inevitably feel.  We had a lot of fun, but I would be a little scared to do this with more than two kids at a time.

Cookie Recipe
1 cup butter softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp salt

Cream the butter and sugar.  Add the egg, vanilla and almond.  Sift together the dry ingredients and combine.  Roll into a log and chill for thirty minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.