Thursday, December 2, 2010

Nutcracker Sweets Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing



The elves are out everywhere at
Purple Chocolat Home
now that Christmas preparations
have started. 

This is Leonard and he is the head chef in the
kitchen here at Purple Chocolat Home (you can kind
of tell because he dresses all in white).


He would like to invite you into the kitchen to
make the Nutcracker Sweet cookies that were
featured in our tablescape yesterday.

He and the other kitchen elves (along with Jessica
and Lindsay) cooked up some gorgeous
sugar cookies.




They have made a lot for you to try.  There should
even be enough to take some home with you.





The elves picked out the bright Christmas reds and
greens.  I think they did a fabulous job.


Hearts and candy canes, swirls and initials,


... it is going to be hard to choose.


I am going to choose this one.  I love the little flourish at
the center of the heart and the dots almost look like
red hots.

Leonard hopes you enjoyed your sweets today and
invites you to come back for more all through
December (boy are we going to put on weight!)

Why is he so thin?


(We made these the night before with our Young Women.)

Make a batch of these and add a little joy to your season.

These cookies were featured in a previous post.

I will include the basic recipes here.



Super Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe

1 box Betty Crocker's French Vanilla cake mix
1 large egg
1/2 C. butter, softened, almost melted
3 T. flour

Mix all of the above until it forms a ball.  If it won't mix
into a ball, add a few sprinkles of water and mix again.

You do not have to chill to roll these out.  Roll out on
parchment paper (if desired) on the cookie sheet.  This
way you don't have to use any extra flour, or very
little and it makes re-rolling the scraps easy. 

Bake the cookies at 350 for 8 minutes.  (The original
recipe said 375 for 7, but I like the 350 better.)

Do not overbake.  You want the cookies to just
look dry on the top and not be brown.  Let cool.

Make 12-18 depending on the size of cookie.

Royal Frosting

2 1/2 T. meringue powder or powdered egg white
4 1/2 C. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
3/4 C. water

Beat the above for about 10 minutes.  ( I have cut the
frosting recipe in half from the original.  This should
still frost 2 batches of the cookies.)

Color as desired.  Place in squeeze bottles to apply.
The original post gives step by step instructions
on how to achieve the designs on the cookies.

Surprisingly easy and very delicious!


Oh, I have to mention I won a beautiful
silver spoon from Johanna.  Thanks
Johanna.  I can't believe she is sending
it all the way from Germany!  What
a treat to own one of her spoons.  Visit
her lovely blog, you can even get the
German translated. 

Posting with




28 comments:

  1. These sound so easy and delicious! Would it work with other flavored cake mixes???
    Congratulations on winning the spoon, Johanna is Such a Sweet and Special Lady, and I'm so happy that you won! I'll be watching to see what place of honor you give it in a future scape...
    Hugs, Donna

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  2. This is such a cute cute post! Beautiful cookies and beautifully presented~

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  3. Little yummy works of art! My favorite is the one in the upper right corner with the two circles, love that look:@)

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  4. I was in awe of those cookies when I saw your tablescape post so thanks for sharing the secrets! They are beautiful! Leonard's a cutie too.

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  5. My oh my i think I would add some weight with this one although think of me as nuts but i don't want to devour that cute cookies. On the second thought, i change my mind I'll bake some and eat some with my nephews. I see tedious exercise ahead, who cares. Great blog!

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  6. I love the hearts and dots. So beautiful!

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  7. Ps. Congrats on the silver spoon; you deserve it.

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  8. What beautiful cookies! Those elves are awesome. ;) And I love an easy sugar cookie recipe!

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  9. I'm just in awe staring at your beautifully decorated cookies. I can only imagine how much time and effort went into each one of these. They're like little works of art.

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  10. Amazing!! Your talents have no end. You always inspire me. I found a blog you might like. I featured it on http://cricketscafe.blogspot.com/ Take a look, she is like you...just filled to the brim with talent!
    Take care Sweetie!
    Cricket

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  11. i cannot believe these are so easy, they are bakery store beautiful! We'll have to make these when our Grandson spends the night this weekend, thanks Leonard!

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  12. I volunteer at my son's school (kitchen), and yesterday I was talking to the chef, that I would never be able to decorate this kind of cookies.. how do you do it do perfectly? :-) It's so beautiful! Yes, you need to be gifted to be able to do it so well. :-)


    I was almost forgetting... Talking about "perfection", Heidi Klum and Seal just bought a new house in La. You need to take a look. I think you'd love the Italian rose gardens.

    xo


    Luciane at HomeBunch.com

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  13. Those cookies look divine! They remind me of the 'icebox' cookies my grandmother used to buy when I was a child! Mmmmmm, this seemingly easy recipe will be on my list this season!

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  14. I am in love with him! I would marry him! Oh, I forgot, I have Sweet Old Bob. Anyhoo, he is gorgeous!
    I have never been able to make cookies that look like this. I did save one of your tutorials, I think when you did your Granddaughter's party. I am going to try it for sure. Hugs, Granny

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  15. These are GORGEOUS! I love the designs! My favorites are the J-O-Y cookies in the last photo:) LOVE them!

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  16. Your cookies are so beautiful. I'm really loving the designs. Christmas must be so magical in your home.

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  17. Wow those cookies are amazing. It must take talent to make them, or wait not much because I made them! They are so easy and delicious. I love the photos you took. They turned out beautiful

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  18. Jacqueline -- you and Jessica baked up a storm with them. I need to make some of these. I just love the color of them. They are so prettily decorated that I could hardly eat the whole batch, I mean hardly eat one!! The JOY is my favorite. Joni

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  19. These truly are beautiful. I am good in the kitchen, so my food always (well, not always) tastes good...but I lack that artsy gene that would make my cookies this pretty! I tend to frost and use sanding sugar, it is difficult to mess that up. Yours are so perfect!

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  20. I'm holding a giveaway on my blog for Orglamix Organic makeup and you're welcome to come by and enter. http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2010/12/orglamix-organic-mineral-makeup-review.html

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  21. Again, beautiful cookies. Your table is set beautifully with the nutcracker theme. So festive and colorful. I love how you decorated everything, including the chandelier.
    I'm making those cookies too. Linda

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  22. Those cookies are so beautiful! Really wonderful job!!

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  23. These look AMAZING. So yummy and beautifully decorated. I featured you today in my favorite things :)

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  24. BEAUTIFUL! The cookies you made are truly works of art, so pretty!
    I have a question. Where did you find meringue powder or powdered egg white? Is there anything that can be used instead? I can't seem to find it anywhere and I'd love to try and make these.

    Jennifer

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  25. Powdered egg whites should be in your grocery store in the cooking aisle. They are called Just Whites. Meringue powder is likely to be found in a cake specialty store. It is egg whites mixed with other ingredients. Try googling it if you can't find it. You can use real egg whites but there is the danger of salmonella.

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  26. Great! Thank U so much. Small town so I am off to check Safeway. Wish me luck. ;0)

    Jennifer

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  27. Beautiful cookies - I would love it if you linked them to my cookie exchange!

    http://purplechocolathome.blogspot.com/2010/12/nutcracker-sweets-sugar-cookies-with.html

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