Susan’s Happy Ribbon Sugar Cookies

It all started out innocently enough back in 2002.  A few donated cookies to help out her local church fund-raisers, a few more dozen to help raise funds for local charity events and a platter here and there promoting a local business.   Before she could say *I’ve amassed over 475 cookie cutters!* Susan of The Painted Cookie LLC was designing and decorating custom sugar cookies for customers who appreciate the attention to detail and pride that goes into every single cookie she bakes.  With sugar cookie or gingerbread dough as her blank canvas, Susan’s creative and artistic mind quickly brings colours and textures together to make edible images that have brought that extra special something to countless occasions.  Whether it be the arrival of a new baby, a milestone anniversary, or a holiday get-together, with hand-decorated, often personalized cookies from Susan, every event is made just a little sweeter.  Whatever the occasion, she can and has created a unique cookie for it, in fact Susan believes that there is a cookie for any occasion.  Since August of 2009 she has been showcasing her designs on her blog for everyone to enjoy.  You can also follow Susan on her Facebook page and CopperGifts, whom she recently collaborated with to create new summer themed cookie cutters highlights some of her work.  I’m delighted that this busy baking and designing Mom of two is here today to share her story and recipe with us.  You can follow Susan on Twitter @PaintedCookieCT

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

This Father’s Day marked the 15^th anniversary of my father’s passing on June 19th. Growing up my parents divorced when I was seven and my dad remarried a couple of years later. We saw each other on weekends, but once I was in Middle School the visits became fewer. It wasn’t until my engagement we reconnected and began to learn about each other again. It was wonderful to have my father walk me down the aisle on my wedding day and share those special “Father – Daughter” moments that day. Here we are on the dance floor together:

A couple of years later, he was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. None of us were surprised because his Father, my grandfather also had the same disease. Grandpa survived well into his 8o’s, so we figured the same prognosis for my father as well.

Three years later, we discovered we were expecting our first child. My father was so excited and I saw an opportunity of bonding again with him though our new baby. All was good until the phone rang when I was 5 months pregnant. My father had been rushed to the hospital from complications from his oral chemo treatment. Unbeknownst to us and the doctor, my father had an infection when he started his oral chemo. The chemo had weakened his immune system and his body started shutting down. He was gone within hours.

The “Happy Ribbon” cutter I found searching through CopperGifts website.  It was a design created by Hiroko Zukushi for breast cancer patients in Japan. Isn’t it perfect?

My sugar cookie recipe is from my grandmother’s recipe box. After playing with the recipe for a while, I discovered a new store in our area called Penzey’s Spices. I fell in love with their double strength vanilla, so I used it for her recipe. Because royal icing is so sweet, I didn’t want just a sweet sugar cookie, so I added nutmeg and minced Lemon Peel. And “The Painted Cookie” recipe was born…..

Rollout Sugar Dough

1-1/2 cup sugar

1 cup butter

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp Penzey’s nutmeg

1 tsp Penzey’s double strength vanilla

1 Tbsp Penzey’s minced lemon peel

3 eggs

4-1/2 cups flour

• Beat sugar and butter
• Add salt, baking soda, nutmeg, vanilla and eggs, mix to blend
• Add flour and mix until combined.
• Chill
• Roll out on a floured surface and cut shapes ¼ inch
• Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes

Royal Icing

1-2lb bag powder sugar

¼ cup Wilton Meringue Powder

1-3/4 cup warm water

• Mix with whisk attachment for 5-6 minutes on Med-Low speed
• Color as needed

For icing these cookies I did the pink icing first and allowed it to dry and then added the white center and decorated. I used sugar pearls for the heart on the cookie shown above and below.

And for the polka dotted cookies, I added the pink dots to a wet white base, allowed it to dry and added the outline and heart in the center.