Sweet Success

Last night I baked up a batch of gingerbread cookies from THIS recipe.  They were quite tasty, and I'm a huge fan of gingerbread as a Holiday treat in general.  But, what I think makes gingerbread cookies so special is how you decorate them, and the time spent with friends and family doing the deed.

(Noah, stuffing as many marshmallows into his mouth as quick as he can before the decorating even begins!  Who can blame him!)

This morning, Natalie, from Zip-Zip's-Vintage-Sewing came over with her two little boys, Noah and Christopher for a cookie decorating play date.  We made royal icing from good 'ole Alton Brown's recipe. Then, we set out an assortment of sprinkles, chocolate candies, and marshmallows, gave each child (ummm...including ourselves!) a cookie, and let the decorating fun begin!

Jane's first cookie.

Christopher's first cookie.

Noah's first cookie.

Even my cat, Zimu wanted desperately to join in on the fun.  She looked longingly at the sprinkles.

Here we all are, up to our elbows in cookies and sweets.

To tell you the truth....I think there were more toppings eaten during the process then there were placed on the cookies...but, don't tell anyone.

Something interesting though...at least to me and Natalie...was how different each person's cookies turned out.  It was almost as if we each had our own intrinsic philosophy on cookie decorating.

Noah shows off his finished cookies....with a little on his face, of course, to prove that they are indeed his.

Noah's philosophy of cookie decorating seemed to be "pile on as many embellishments as possible...especially marshmallows."

Christopher gingerly presents his creations.

Christopher's philosophy had more to do with color scheme, and abstraction...maybe taking after Picasso a little bit...

Jane is proud of her work.

Jane went for a slightly more realistic approach...and strove to make each cookie an individual.

These are some of my creations....

These are some of Natalie's work....

I get the feeling that the inhibitions of childhood made for better, more spontaneously creative cookies!