BE MADE: A "Stache" of Cookies

Thursday, July 18, 2013

A "Stache" of Cookies

I hope you have had a chance to check out the cutest mustache party evah! And if you did, you probably missed one element of the party.

Missed it because I didn't show a pic. ):

Unless you have x-ray vision. Then you saw. Yay! (:

The goodie bags contained a mustache element that I wanted to share because it was super easy to make. And I thought you might enjoy checking it out.

Ok, remember the birthday cake?

It was a blatant take-off from this pin.

When we were still in the planning stage of the party, I saw these mustache cookie cutters and thought how CUTE mustache cookies would be. But my practical side of me kept saying: "When would you use that cookie cutter again? Mustache cookies at Christmas? Or maybe for every guys' birthday you know? No, probably not. Don't buy it."

So I didn't. But I really, really liked the idea.

And then, light bub! {Don't you love when they light up all unexpected like?!}

Why couldn't I take the cake concept and use it on a cookie?

So, as a secret surprise, I set out to make mustache cookies {sans a cookie cutter} that we could put in the goodie bags.

There may be better ways to do this, but this is what worked best for me with what I had on hand.

I started with your basic store-bought sugar cookie dough stick/roll/tube. Whatever you wanna call it. The "slice-and-bake" stuff.

The directions on this particular brand suggested you cut them into 1/2" thick slices. Do not do this. I quickly discovered this is much too much dough. Go with probably 1/4". I didn't measure. Just sliced. Sorry.

I kept my slices in the refrigerator to keep them stiff. If you've ever used this dough before, you probably know it will get sticky and difficult to work with. I also used a piece of parchment so when the dough did get a little sticky, it wouldn't stick to the work surface.

Once I realized the thicker slices wouldn't make good mustaches {baked up too fat}, I rolled my slices thinner, which also helped to make them more of a circle shape, since the package ended up like a oval combined with a rectangle. {Not sure what you would call that, rectoval? Ovangle? Anyhoo...} After I rolled the dough slightly thinner, I used a knife to reinforce the circle shape.

I used the same knife to cut out the mustache shapes. This is where all that doodling in junior high comes in. You remember. The yin-yang? I had that thing drawn on everything! Notebooks, folders, backpacks....everywhere. Ugh. And I was so good at it, ha ha. But that was like, 15 years ago, so my yin-yang skills were slow to return. Not quite like riding a bike. But thankfully I didn't need the training wheels.

So you draw your yin-yang, then separate the two pieces. You'll have to flip one of the over to get your mustache shape.

The join them together in the middle by just mushing a little.

My cookies weren't perfect, nor uniform, like they would have been had I used a cutter. But I think maybe that made them funner.

One side a little bushier than the other.

Or one curl a little curlier than the other.

I baked them according to the package directions, although I did keep an eye on them time-wise since they were thinner than the package recommended. Once they were cooled, it was time to frost.

I found a great sugar cookie frosting that tastes so good {my hubby compared it to the chocolate donut frosting}, hardens quickly and only takes 4 {or 5, in this case} ingredients: powdered sugar {2 cups}, milk {added by the tablespoon as needed}, light syrup {1 Tbsp}, vanilla extract {or almond}{1 tsp} and cocoa {1/2 cup}.

I filled my piping bag and used a plain tip to pipe the 'stache.

So cute!

And really yummy!

Once the icing had hardened, into a plastic bag they went, then into the goodie bags. Unfortunately, I had made more cookies than bags, so we had leftovers. Ok, so, not so much unfortunate. Well, for my diet it was ha ha!

Ah, the perks of a do-it-all party planner, ha ha ha ha!

Hope you found a little inspiration with this easy-peasy yummy project.

TTFN!