Mardi Gras is next Tuesday (the 9th, for those of you date-minded people). The Midwest isn’t big on Mardi Gras, but I try to make something each year to celebrate. This year I took the easiest possible way out (read: no king cake!) and made sugar cookies.

If you are a new to decorating with royal icing, here are some helpful tips and links:

• I used my grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, which is listed below.  Another good cut-out cookie recipe can be found at Bridget’s wonderful Bake at 350.
• I used a royal icing recipe from Annie’s Eats, which is listed below.
• If you are new to decorating with royal icing, please visit this post by Annie’s Eats, which will teach you about outlining and flooding.  Bake at 350 is also a great resource for cookie decorating and ideas (I love Bridget’s book, too!).

Here are the specifics on how I made these cookies:

• I used a fleur de lis cookie cutter. I don’t remember where I bought it.
• I outlined and flooded the cookies with plain white icing. Easy peasy, right?
• Then I decorated the cookies with green, yellow, and purple sugar. Simple dimple, right?
• That’s it. Clearly I did not step up my game for these!
• One thing to note — the colors from the sugars may bleed into the icing. So if that bothers you (heyyy, fellow Type-As!), make and decorate these as close to your serving time as possible.

Omi’s Sugar Cookies
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients gradually. Chill the batter overnight or for at least 4 hours. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350F until golden (in true fashion, my grandma didn’t give a specific baking time. I baked the cookies for about 8 minutes). My fleur de lis cookies were huge — so if you want a lot of these cookies, double or triple this batch of dough. It all depends on how big your cookies are.

White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes).  Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping. Note: I made two batches of this icing because my cookies were so big.

Malted Milk Cupcakes
Recipe source: Tracy’s Culinary Adventures
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup malted milk powder
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1 3/4 cups whole milk, at room temperature
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the frosting:
12 oz milk chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup malted milk powder
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Plus malted milk balls to garnish.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin pans with paper liners.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and malted milk powder. Whisk until well combined.
3. Add the chocolate and butter to a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second bursts on 50% power, stirring in between each, until the mixture is melted and smooth. Stir in the oil until combined.
4. Add the chocolate mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients, along with 1 cup of the milk and beat on low speed until combined, stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl once or twice.
5. In a measuring cup, whisk together the remaining 3/4 cup milk, eggs, and vanilla. Pour half of this mixture to the mixer bowl and beat on low speed until incorporated then add the second half and beat again on low speed until everything is combined (scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl as necessary).
6. Divide the batter evenly among the liners, filling each about 3/4-full. Bake for about 20-24 minutes, or until the cupcakes spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the pan to a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool for a few minutes, then remove them to the rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting:
1. Add the chocolate to the bowl of your stand mixer. In a small saucepan whisk together the malted milk powder and heavy cream. Set the pan over medium heat, and stirring almost constantly, bring the mixture to a simmer. Pour the cream mixture over the chocolate (do not stir yet) and then cover the mixer bowl with plastic wrap. Set aside for 5 minutes.
2. Remove the plastic wrap and gently whisk the mixture until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours, or until well chilled.
3. Place the bowl on your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Cut the butter into 1/4-inch cubes. Start mixing on low, and gradually add the pieces of butter to the chocolate mixture in the bowl – let one incorporate before adding the next. After you’ve incorporated all the butter, increase the mixer to medium-high speed and beat until the frosting is smooth and thick.
4. Transfer the frosting to a large pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip. Pipe frosting into a swirl on each cupcake. Garnish each cupcake with a malted milk ball, if desired.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

These cookies were pretty easy to make — no outlining, no flooding involved! If you are a new to decorating with royal icing, here are some helpful tips and links:

• I used my grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, which is listed below.  Another good cut-out cookie recipe can be found at Bridget’s wonderful Bake at 350.
• I used a royal icing recipe from Annie’s Eats, which is listed below

Here are the specifics on how I made these cookies:

• I found this cookie cutter on sale at Williams-Sonoma a few years ago. I was pretty excited to find it because of its unique tree shape.
• I dyed the majority of my royal icing green using Wilton’s Leaf green gel coloring. I reserved a small amount of icing for the stars and used Wilton’s Buttercup get coloring.
• I piped the branches and stars using a small round tip. The small round sprinkles were found at Hobby Lobby — and I believe they were a Wilton product.
• That’s it — easy, right?

Omi’s Sugar Cookies
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients gradually. Chill the batter overnight or for at least 4 hours. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350F until golden (in true fashion, my grandma didn’t give a specific baking time. I baked the cookies for about 8 minutes).

White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes).  Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping.

Little Bitty Turkey Cookies
Recipe source: The Decorated Cookie
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

You will need:
Chocolate-covered sunflower seeds
1 tub of chocolate frosting
Candy eyes (Target sells them!)
Small, round sugar cookies (I used pre-made Pillsbury dough)

Instructions:
1. Bake your cookies! Allow the cookies to cool completely.
2. Frost each cookie with chocolate icing.
3. Place two eyes on each cookie. Then place yellow & red sunflower seeds on each cookie for the beak and gizzard (is the red thing the gizzard? Maybe?).
4. Make the feathers using any combination of colored sunflower seeds.

1. Sugar Pumpkin Cupcakes
2. Halloween Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
3. Pumpkin Mini Muffins
4. Sugar Skull Cupcakes
5. Cake Batter Halloween Cookies
6. Candy Corn Cookies
7. Sugar Mummy Cupcakes
8. Indian Corn Cake
9. Pumpkin Cupcakes
10. Pumpkin Raisin Bread
11. Mummy Cupcakes
12. Halloween Brownies
13. Hoot Owl Cupcakes
14. Pumpkin Sandwich Cookies
15. Trick-or-Treat Rice Krispie Treats
16. Ghost Cake
17. Spider Cupcakes
18. Pumpkin Cupcakes II
19. Frankenstein Cupcakes
20. Candy Corn Cupcakes
21. Halloween Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
22. Chocolate & Vanilla Halloween Cupcakes
23. Pumpkin Spiderweb Cookies
24. Halloween Puppy Chow
25. Candy Corn Surprise Cupcakes
26. Pumpkin M&M Cookies
27. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
28. Pumpkin Pi Cookies
29. Caramel Apple Cupcakes
30. Candy Corn Cupcakes
31. Skeleton Cookies
32. Frankencake
33. Day of the Dead Cookies
34. Ghost Cookies
35. Monster Cupcakes
36. Candy Corn Mummy Cookies
37. Apple Cookies
38. Halloween Confetti Cookies
39. Franken Candy-Corns
40. Blood Spatter Cookies

Anyway, what better way to celebrate Halloween than with some ooey, gooey blood spatter cookies?! These were so easy to make and really fun — cause you get to be suuuuuper messy!

If you are a new to decorating with royal icing, here are some helpful tips and links:

• I used my grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, which is listed below.  Another good cut-out cookie recipe can be found at Bridget’s wonderful Bake at 350.
• I used a royal icing recipe from Annie’s Eats, which is listed below.
• If you are new to decorating with royal icing, please visit this post by Annie’s Eats, which will teach you about outlining and flooding.  Bake at 350 is also a great resource for cookie decorating and ideas (I love Bridget’s book, too!).

Here are the specifics on how I made these cookies:

• I used a round cookie cutter — any size larger than 2″ will work.
• I outlined and flooded with white icing and allowed the cookies to dry for at least a couple hours.
• Now comes the fun part. Dye a bowl of royal icing red. Use AmeriColor’s Super Red — because nothing else will even come close to blood red. If you can’t quite get your red to be dark enough, add a little black food coloring; but do this very carefully and conservatively because you don’t want to add too much… and have your batch of icing ruined because it’s too dark.
• Spread a generous layer of paper towels or newspapers all over your kitchen floor. I cannot stress this enough: cover as much of your floor as you can. Set your cookies on the floor. Using a fork, fling the red icing onto the cookies. There’s no great way to explain this. I just scooped up some red icing with a fork and flung it onto the cookies. You’ll make a mess and it won’t be perfect — embrace this!
• Side note: if you want to take photos of your cookies, don’t wait until the next day. The red icing will bleed (no pun intended) into the white as time goes on.

Omi’s Sugar Cookies
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients gradually. Chill the batter overnight or for at least 4 hours. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350F until golden (in true fashion, my grandma didn’t give a specific baking time. I baked the cookies for about 8 minutes).

White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes).  Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping. Depending on how large your cookies are, you may need to make more than one batch of this icing.

Here’s the problem with having a 7-year old baking blog: you run out of ideas for certain holidays. Halloween is my favorite baking holiday and I have done it all — candy corn everything, pumpkin everything, ghost cupcakes, skull cookies, you name it, I’ve probably made it. So I really had to think about what else I could do — franken-candy corns! These were simple and I think they’re pretty cute!

If you are a new to decorating with royal icing, here are some helpful tips and links:

• I used my grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, which is listed below.  Another good cut-out cookie recipe can be found at Bridget’s wonderful Bake at 350.
• I used a royal icing recipe from Annie’s Eats, which is listed below.
• If you are new to decorating with royal icing, please visit this post by Annie’s Eats, which will teach you about outlining and flooding.  Bake at 350 is also a great resource for cookie decorating and ideas (I love Bridget’s book, too!).

Here are the specifics on how I made these cookies:

• You will need a candy corn cookie cutter. Or, in a pinch, you can use an easter egg cutter. The shapes are similar and who is really going to care? Remember, they’re just cookies. :)
• I used AmeriColor super black gel coloring and AmeriColor’s electric green gel coloring.
• Divide the royal icing (see recipe below) into three bowls. Dye the icing in one bowl black, one bowl green, and leave the other white.
• I outlined the cookies with the corresponding colors — black at the base, then green, then white at the tip. Wait a few hours and then flood your cookies.
• Allow the cookies to dry completely, then pipe black stitching onto each cookie.
• Easy, right?! Again, if you are unfamiliar with the concepts of outlining and flooding, please check out the links I posted above to Annie’s Eats or Bake at 350. Those cookie goddesses will teach you all you need to know.

Omi’s Sugar Cookies
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients gradually. Chill the batter overnight or for at least 4 hours. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350F until golden (in true fashion, my grandma didn’t give a specific baking time. I baked the cookies for about 8 minutes). Since these cookies were a bit larger, I would bake them for about 10 minutes. But watch them, as oven temps can vary!

White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes).  Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping.

Note: you will likely need more than one batch of this icing, especially if the cookies you are making are large.

Halloween Confetti Cookies
Recipe source: Joy the Baker
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking power
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean (I didn’t have one, so I left it out; the cookies turned out fine!)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
About 1 cup of seasonal sprinkles (use jimmies, not nonpareils)

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking power, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the bowl (I skipped this step). Add the egg and vanilla extract, and beat until thoroughly combined.
3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. The dough will be thick. Fold in 1/4 cup of the sprinkles.
4. Put the remaining 3/4 cup of sprinkles in a small bowl. Scoop up 2 Tablespoons of dough and roll it into a ball (I used a cookie scoop and it worked well!). Dip the ball into the bowl of sprinkles to cover lightly. Put the ball on a plate. Repeat with the remaining sprinkles and dough, and chill the balls of dough for at least 2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Transfer the chilled balls of dough onto the baking sheets, leaving about two inches between each ball.
7. Bake until the cookies have spread and are just beginning to brown around the edges, but are mostly pale and soft — about 10 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 18 cookies.