Covered in icing.

I spent the entire day yesterday baking.  I have one more small batch of non-fiddly cookies to make today and then I am DONE.  But yesterday was all about the fiddly cookies.

Post-cutout, pre-baking.

Post-baking, pre-icing.

Post-icing, post-exhaustion, pre-passing out in bed.

Thoughts, observations and helpful hints from my first time using a piping bag to ice cookies:


1 - Those people on those baking shows make it look like it's no big thing.
2 - It isn't no big thing.
3 - Icing that is too thick will drive you nuts and seize your hand into one big cramp.
4 - Icing that is too thin will squish out of the top of the bag and run down your arm.
5 - You will not realize icing is squishing out the top of the bag until it is running down your arm.
6 - Eating mistakes sounds like a perk and an all-round yummy idea.
7 - There will be so many mistakes that your teeth will start to hurt from eating them all; get a damp cloth to wipe mistakes onto.
8 - There will be icing all over your kitchen.  I mean it: every surface.  Again, damp cloths are your friends.  
9 - You will be tempted to start piping angry and/or crying faces instead of smiley faces to match your mood.  Resist.
10 - Breathe, wipe brow and push toward the finish line, you are almost there.
11 - Your smiling child will appreciate your efforts.  Repeat as mantra until finished.  
12 - Take some photos for proof that you actually did this crazy thing, since it may never happen again.