Brooklyn Turns Two!

My sweet little baby who was once as small as a doll has just turned two. Oh my! This summer my first born will turn 4, and he wants a pirate party. So for Brooke's birthday I decided to go with a ducky theme. She has enjoyed exclaiming "DUCKY!" every time she saw one in a book. It was a low-key with just family, but it was fun making her smile none-the-less!

My first thought was to make ducky cookies and a ducky cake. As you might know, I love doing party and "event" planning at my own home, even if it's just a low-key gathering. But a chance to make creative foods for my kids' milestones - YES! So despite a painful bout of carpel tunnel syndrome (brought on by pregnancy, and I am desperately awaiting labor any day), I set out to make some cookies and cake. With a simple ducky cookie cutter I went to Pinterest (of course!) and found a sugar cookie recipe and a glaze recipe. I knew I was going to make a chocolate cake using my improvised box recipe (see Sprinkle Cake last post below) and yellow icing.


I've never really spent much time perfecting any cookie recipes, but these sugar cookies turned out GREAT! The flavor and texture was perfect and I believe I will not stray from this recipe. Ever.

My brother-in-law is getting married in 2 months and has officially asked me to make these cookies as his wedding favors! I am honored and happy to make them. But now the pressure is on!
  
You can find the original recipe here, but I have posted a copy below:
*Note - I did not add the baking powder to keep the cookie edges crisp

Cookies

Ingredients
1-1/8 cup unsalted butter
1-1/4 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions
1. Cream together the butter and sugar. I set the butter out on the counter for about 30 minutes, chopped into small squares, to bring it to room temperature before beginning. (I have had bad luck with using the microwave to bring butter to room temperature.)
2. Beat in the eggs (I set these out on the counter with the butter to bring them to room temperature too), vanilla, and almond flavorings.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
4. One cup at a time, mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Scraping down your bowl as needed.
5. Divide dough up into three sections, Saran wrap, and refrigerate overnight. (For some reason cookies just taste better when the dough is refrigerated overnight.)
6. When you are ready to bake, take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes so it’s not too hard to work with.
7. After rolling and cutting your dough, set your dough shapes in the freezer for about 10 minutes before baking to reduce spreading.
8. Bake on parchment paper lined baking sheets at 350 for 6 to 8 minutes.
9. After removing the cookies from the oven, let them sit for a couple of minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. 

As for the glaze, click here for the original recipe, and again below I have put a copy below:

Glaze

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 Tbs milk (the website says tsp but I think that was a mistake)

2 tsp light corn syrup (I used honey because I didn't have corn syrup)

1/4 tsp almond extract (You can use vanilla but I wanted a clear flavoring)

assorted food coloring 

*Mix all the ingredients together in the order listed. If mixture gets too thin add more sugar a little at a time. I put the mixture in a Ziplock bag and cut a tiny hole in the corner and piped it onto the cookies. This glaze spreads a little so be careful around the edges, but if it's thick enough it'll set nicely. Give the cookies a couple of hours to set before stacking lightly or packing away.

The Cake! 

This cake was a Devil's Food box cake mix. I doubled the oil, replaced the water for milk and added and extra egg. I have found this makes the cake much better. I baked the cake in a 9x13 pan. I froze the cake until I was ready to cut the duck. I simply took a piece of wax paper and traced a duck to my liking, cut out the shape and then proceeded to cut out the duck. I used an extra piece of cake to make a little wing.

After the cake was cut into the duck shape I put on a crumb coat of yellow icing. Again, this icing was store bought (whipped cream cheese) and I just added the yellow coloring. It took one whole container of frosting to do the crumb coat, which showed me I may not have enough to do all the piping. With that in mind I left the top undone and only did the edges and sides, leaving a small amount of white icing left over to make the orange bill. As it turns out, the second container was just enough to do just that. So now the top is still undone. It's 9pm and my carpel tunnel is acting up. No, I'm not heading out to the store just to get another container, and I really didn't feel like looking up a good recipe. So..... I made more glaze! I knew I had the ingredients and the ability to make it fast. I made one batch from the recipe posted above and piped it onto the top and right up to the edges. It worked out great! It did make the cake a little extra sweet, which I told my guests, but it was still a cute cake and tasty!

As for the eye, I knew I didn't want to buy a whole box of candy just for one eye (not that there's anything wrong with that! I would've used Junior Mints, but I was budget constrained). So now I'm scouring my cabinets to see what I can use. Ah ha! A Dum Dum lollypop. But what about the "iris"? I had some white chocolate chips left over from another day, and melted about 5 of them together (30 seconds on half power in the microwave) and a little blue coloring. White chocolate does NOT microwave very well, so it it wasn't runny, just sticky. The blue dye gave it just enough moisture to stick together. I'm just glad it worked out. I really wasn't about to make any more frosting or glaze just to dab the eye with color.

Once the cake was complete I stuck it in the fridge until the party the next day. I put a "2" candle on the tail with some little decorative balloons I had. I think it all made for a cute cake that was appropriate for a 2-year-old. And Brooklyn loved it! As did everyone else.