Cookie decorations – Cooking Vintage

A Recipe from Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book (1963)

About the Recipe

If you have a small child around, you probably already know that for every older kid / adult Disney thing, there’s probably a Disney Jr. version. For Alice in Wonderland, that’s Alice’s Wonderland Bake Shop. It’s a delightful musical show where, well, Alice bakes. My son is very into it. One day while watching, he came up to me and asked if we could make sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles. To the Cooky Book we went!

This was such a lovely little recipe. A dirty cookbook page is usually a good indication. It’s been made over and over, and let me tell you – Ethel (whoever she may be) knew what she was doing. These cookies are light and slightly caky. Not too sweet with just enough crunch. A perfect sugar cookie.

There’s a whole section for icings and frostings, but for what my son was looking for, the Easy Creamy Icing seemed the way to go. Don’t be afraid to add the amount of cream you need to make the frosting work.

We frosted the cookie and then dipped into sprinkles, which worked really nicely. My son had extra fun dipping into multiple sprinkles to make some crazy combinations.

The Recipe!

Ingredients:

Ethel’s Sugar Cookies:
3/4 cup shortening (part butter or margarine)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 t. lemon flavoring or 1 t. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt

Easy Creamy Icing:
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 t vanilla or other flavoring
1 1/2 T cream or 1 T water

Directions:

Ethel’s Sugar Cookies:
Mix shortening, sugar, eggs, and flavoring thoroughly. Measure flour by dipping method or by sifting. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt together; blend in. Chill at least 1 hr.

Heat oven to 400*F (mod. hot). Roll dough 1/8″ thick on lightly floured board. Cut with 3″ cooky cutter. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 6 to 8 min., or until cookies are a delicate golden color. Makes about 4 doz. cookies.

Easy Creamy Icing:
Blend sugar, salt, and flavoring (try lemon, almond, or peppermint flavoring for variety). Add cream to make easy to spread. If desired, tint with a few drops of food coloring. Spread o cookies with spatula or pastry brush. Makes icing for 3 to 5 doz. cookies, depending on size.

A Recipe from Betty Crocker’s New Boys and Girls Cookbook (1974)

About the Recipe

It was a rainy day where I live on the south shore of Long Island, and I thought, what a perfect day for baking cookies with Maxx. This recipe had 2 things going for it right off the bat: It’s right there on the page – “Remember these cookies for something to do on a rainy day” and Maxx’s two favorite things to do right now are to bake cookies and paint. The rain started; we gathered ingredients!

All in all, these are not my favorite sugar cookies (I’m just now realizing that I didn’t publish a post on my favorites, which I’ll have to amend soon…). They’re a honey cookie, really and kind of… meh. But the painting part, I absolutely love! It’s so simple I can’t believe I’ve never seen it before – egg wash paint – brilliant! It doesn’t add any taste, but the colors come out wonderfully.

Though it doesn’t seem like a lot of “paint,” it actually goes quite a long way. The effect is like watercoloring on cookies. Maxx and I used soft watercolor brushes which worked well. So much fun!

Pro-tip for those also painting with toddlers: Pick complimentary colors so that the paint doesn’t come out brown when they inevitably dip their paintbrush in every color at once.

About the book

This is one of those essential kids cookbooks to have in a collection if you collect that sort of thing. I didn’t actually start collecting kids cookbooks until I had a kid, and they’re just so darn cute! This one is kind of a celebration of the original mid-century designs, updated with a little ’70s flair.

The Recipe!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup soft shortening
2/3 cup honey
1 egg
1 t vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt

Egg Yolk Paint:
1 egg yolk
1/4 t water
food coloring

Directions:

Mix sugar, shortening, honey, egg and vanilla thoroughly in bowl. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt in another bowl. Mix the dry ingredients into the shortening mixture. Chill dough 1 hour.

Heat oven to 375*F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

Divide chilled dough into 3 portions. (Place 2 portions of dough in refrigerator until ready to use.)

On a lightly floured board, roll out dough with floured rolling pin. Roll to 1/4-inch thickness. (For easiest rolling, use a lightly floured cloth-covered board and rolling pin.) Cut into different shapes.

Place on prepared baking sheet. With small paintbrushes, paint designs on cookies with Egg Yolk Paint (below).

Bake 8-10 minutes. For clear colors, do not let cookies brown.

Let cookies cool about 2 minutes on a baking sheet, then cool on a wire rack.

Egg Yolk Paint:
Blend egg yolk and water well in small bowl. Divide mixture among several small custard cups. Add a few different food coloring to each cup to make bright colors. If “paint” thickens, add a few drops of water.