Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Cut-Out Cookies with Children

Since our kitchen was all torn up through the entire month of December, we didn't get to make any Christmas cookies. 

Very sad, I know.

So, the kids and I decided to buy some new cookie cutters and make some festive Easter cookies.

If you would ever be so "lucky" as to make cut-out cookies with six children, I have some tips for you.  I did not include a recipe, because honestly, there have got to be better ones out in the land of allrecipe and pinterest. 

The italics portions are the kids' two cents.

1.  Make the dough without them.  The cutting, baking, and decorating will be more than enough together time.  Don't feel guilty about starting the process without them.  We don't mind that you made the dough without us, but was it really necessary to lock us out of the house in order to do so? 
Yes.  Yes it was.

2.  When the dough is ready, gather all of your materials before you call the kids into the kitchen.  Make sure you divide the dough into equal parts, one for each child, then get a "station" ready for each of them.  You may want to invest in more than one rolling pin.  Or not.  It's called "learning patience".

3.  Let the kids do the work.  Demonstrate how to roll out the dough, then hand over the rolling pin.  You might want to make sure they have a sufficient amount of flour, seeing as how the dough sticks to everything.  We had to start over 5 times before we could get the cut cookies off of the counter intact.  I think that has more to do with the lack of attention to the demonstration than the lack of flour. 



Like I said, let the kids do the work.  They'll figure it out.





4.  After you make (or open the can of) frosting, separate the white icing into separate bowls to mix up a variety of colors.  Make sure you have one color for each child.  It's helpful to also make frosting in colors that match your shapes.  If you give us a cookie in the shape of a carrot, we'd appreciate it if you had some orange frosting available.   Well, that wouldn't be very creative, now would it?  (I did whip up some orange.  They were about to mutiny.)

5.  Demonstrate how to frost a cookie.  I would highly suggest keeping the cookies on the counter/table while being frosted.  There will be a much better chance of keeping the cookie intact.





6.  If you're feeling really adventurous, give them some sprinkles to add a little bling to their cookies.





7.  Leave the kids alone.  It is hard sometimes, but don't touch and don't give opinions.  Let them create all on their very own.


If the kids are in the kitchen, your goal cannot be to create perfection.  The goal is to give the kids a chance to have fun, learn some new skills, and gain some self-confidence.  They can't do that if you're hanging over their shoulders telling them what to do.

Just go into the experience knowing there will be a big mess and knowing the rabbit will probably not look like a rabbit.  It's all good.  Don't eat Cuckoo's cookies.



Agreed.

Three letters down, 23 to go!

Not a C word, but I just found out my story is part of a series called HerStories.  It is a series Jessica Smock and Stephanie Sprenger have started, and they have found some wonderful contributors.  I'm honored to be featured today at School of Smock, where I tell the story of my very best friendship of my life. 

Have a lovely day!

19 comments:

  1. That looks like so much fun ... for them. I'm sure you had one hell of a clean up afterwards.

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    1. They did have a good time. I was in constant clean-up mode. After each step of the process I made them take a break so I could get the kitchen back in order. Probably should have mentioned that.

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  2. Haha! Oh the paitence you have learned!

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  3. FUN!!!!
    I will email you my sugar cookie recipe it is THE BEST EVER and easiest ever for children to use/roll/cut/decorate. and it tastes good to! Super easy and when finished the cookies actually look like the shape you cut them in. I try not to eat the cookies the little ones decorate because they do a lot of finger licking!

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  4. Hey, did you ever try those pop in the oven sugar cookies in your grocer's fridge with the little stamped shape for every holiday? Perfect every time!!!!! LOL

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    1. Hahahahaha! I knew you were going to say that!

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  5. This looked like a lot of fun! Always good to make up for lost cookie baking time :) I don't recall ever helping in any cookie creation when growing up :( Just the devouring of the end product. I think it would have been a ton of fun.

    Gave some good pointers, especially letting the kids be creative and not hound expecting some sort of perfection... But dang it... match the colors with the shapes! Come on! lol

    My favorite part would be the bling.

    Congrats on being featured on School of Smock! Don't worry, your secret of locking the kids outside is safe with me ;-)

    Jak at The Cryton Chronicles & Dreams in the Shade of Ink

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    1. I am not only doing it for them. As you will see in a later post (I'm really trying to be organized for this challenge.) I want my future daughters-in-law to love me. I want my boys to know what they are doing in a kitchen.

      Thanks, both for the encouragement and keeping my secret safe.

      And I did make orange! :)

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  6. I really love, love, loved your photos, they were truly beautiful!! And, the tips, most perfect, of course!! I also could not help but notice the beauty of your countertops, cabinets and lovely BIG fridge in the background. Kitchens really should be beautiful since so many memories are made there!

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    1. Thank you so much. I do love my new kitchen. Still love, love, love it. So many memories are made there, since I'm in there more than anywhere.

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  7. I love sugar cookies! I use the one from my Betty Crocker cookbook and they are delish. My helpful hint of the day: put a little blip of corn syrup in the frosting, be it canned or homemade, and it will make the frosting set so the cookies can be stacked when completely dry yet not be break-your-teeth hard like royal icing.

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    1. Betty Crocker rocks. Always.
      Corn syrup, huh? Never heard of that. I'll give it a try next time.

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  8. I loved reading the story of your friendship!

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  9. This looks so fun and brought back great memories of doing Christmas cookie with Mom when we were kids, though she was a bit of a perfectionist. You have it right... let the kids enjoy themselves and learn in the process! And yes, who said cut out cookies are just for Christmas? These are the kinds of memories that last a lifetime, and they looked pretty good too! :-)

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    1. The big kids did a great job decorating. They even put the sprinkles on one at a time to get them just right. Cuckoo's? Not so much. :)
      I'm glad it brought back some good memories for you.

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  10. so fun! We make sugar cut-out cookies (and that mess) every Christmas. It's such a fun tradition. Your kids did a great job. :-) I just noticed we have the same backdrop (wooden fence) on our blogs. Great minds think alike.
    from The Dugout

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