Task 2 - Diaper Cake and Sugar Cookies

Blue cupcakes with booties and rattles that shake,
Bright bows and flowing ribbon hats that all need to make,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Diapers in circles and bears on the top,
Little carriage sugar cookies will not be a flop,
These are a few of my favorite things....

Well, I'm no Julie Andrews but these were some of my favorite things this week.
Another shower down, 1 more to go.

When you have a large family and many groups of friends sometimes it is necessary to host a few showers, each one deserving of creative differences.
Instead of creating an edible cake this go round, I decided a picture perfect diaper cake was in order

along with some "thank you for coming" loot bags which included sugar cookies, blue kisses and candy bottles.

My Thursday and Friday this week was spent making dough for the cookies, baking cookies, making icing, tinting icing, piping icing, hand writing the little cards, packaging the bags and preparing the fake cake.

Some diaper shirt shapes, some carriage shapes and some teddy bear shapes (not shown)

Ok, so it sounds like it took me a whole 48 hours when in reality it didn't take that long - I spread it out over the course of those days.  I didn't want to get hand cramps from rolling and piping you know!

I will be posting the sugar cookie recipe only but if you want instructions on the diaper cake or to tell me how AHEM, how wonderful I am, please feel free to visit my "contact me" page and shoot me off an email, I'll pass along my wisdom.

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
makes approx. 20 medium sized shapes

1/2 c. unsalted butter
3/4 c. vanilla sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla (use an extra 1/2 tsp. if you don't use vanilla sugar)
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt

In a mixer beat the butter and sugar until it is soft and fluffy.  Add in the egg and vanilla.
Incorporate your dry ingredients in a separate bowl and mix into the wet.
When it forms a soft dough, remove it and divide it into 2 balls.  Wrap them in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least an hour.
When you are ready, roll out your dough and use cutters to form.
Bake in a preheated oven of 350F for about 8-10 minutes or until they start to lightly brown on the bottoms.
Remove and let cool on the pan for a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack.
Cool completely before icing.

Royal Icing

1 large egg white
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 c. icing sugar, sifted

In a bowl, beat the egg whites with the lemon juice with a hand mixer. Add the icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth.
This will give you an icing that you can cover the entire surface of the cookie.
If you want a thicker consistency to pipe a border around add an additional cup of sugar.
*I added the Wilton brand food color as I was in the mixing process by toothpick*