As a cookie decorator I find that the best cookies are those I create to surprise someone. That's exactly what I did the other day to a dear cousin of mine who is expecting her firstborn. Our family was going to give her a baby shower this month with baby deer as the theme, so I planned my surprise a couple of weeks ago. Baby Deer for a Baby Shower Years ago I acquired a large collection of cookie cutters from my dear friend, Janet Bridge, and since then I have made sure to do justice to them. The majority of the cookie cutters are American made copper cutters from the venerable coppersmiths of Copper Gifts. A small fawn cutter that I fell in love with the moment I saw it was THE perfect cookie cutter for this project. How adorable is this fawn? Having rolled, cut and baked my cookie shapes, I took some delicious royal icing and tinted three batches to match the fawns I see on a yearly basis around the property. A rich chocolate brown, a neutral-warm taupe ...
Living in Pennsylvania, it's only imperative that I make some Groundhog Day cookies for the coming holiday. If you have followed the blog over the years, you know that we have resident groundhogs on the property which we look forward to seeing every single year. These charming creatures are naturally skittish and solitary (Marmota monax), so we leave them alone and observe them from a distance. The holiday itself comes from Pennsylvania Dutch (in reality it is the Pennsylvania German's observance of Candlemas) lore, which tells us that when the woodchuck comes out of hibernation, if the creature sees its shadow, we will have six more weeks of winter. If the marmot does not see its shadow, spring will arrive early. Since people around the country celebrate the holiday in some way or another, even if it's just to tune in to see what Punxsutawney Phil predicts, I thought it would be fun to make some cookies in honor of those adorable rodents. Use whatever cookie cutter ...