The Art of the Cookie

Among my other hobbies, I also enjoy baking.  At a recent bridal shower, I was given The Art of the Cookie.  It has the most fabulous pictures inside of what your cookies could look like if only you follow their simple directions.  My heart said "fabulous!" but my mind said "yeah.... right."

Despite my doubts of success, I decided to put my baking skills to the test this weekend by attempting an ambitiously pretty batch of cookies out of my new book.  After paging through it, I settled on Polka Dot decorated lemon-buttermilk cookies.  (Truth be told, this page had the fewest directions which *may* have colored my decision)  But before I could decorate, I had to make the cookies.  My supplies:

Yes, my supplies included a butter pecan scone and an almond puff pastry from A Baker's Wife.  It's a little know fact that you bake better if you are eating baked goods while you work. :) 

Yummy!

After the cookies were baked, I made a batch of royal icing.  This was a bit of an adventure because the recipe called for meringue powder which I could not find.  So, I decided to make meringue myself which meant I needed to pasteurize some eggs...

...and then whip the whites into a frenzy with lemon juice and powdered sugar.  Finally, it was time to decorate!  Unfortunately, I didn't buy the right food coloring.  I was looking for gel food coloring but accidentally bought gel icing instead.  Whoops.  I tried to add the colored icing to the royal icing, but I ended up with pale pastel polka dots instead of the bright, vibrant ones I wanted.

When I realized that they weren't going to turn out as planned, I was one sad cookie.

But then I figured I could just ice the cookies however I wanted to - great idea, right?

In the end, the cookies tasted great.  Next time, though, I'll read the labels in the baking isle a bit more closely.