Good Things by David

Every single year, I love to bake and ice sugar cookies for Halloween.  Whether they're meant for trick-or-treaters or for individuals who are near and dear to me, I make sure to create cookies that are colorful, a bit spooky, and infinitely delicious.  It's nice to see people devour one of my cookies in a few bites, and then tell me that it was so good.  This is what every baker strives for! This year I baked dozens of cookies with some new cutters that I recently purchased.  With a little help from the Sweet Sugar Belle shapeshifter cookie cutters found at Michael's, I cut out and baked many toothsome Halloween cookies for some people in town. I love the triangular cookie cutter that makes those wonderful candy corns, along with the skull and tombstone cookie cutter shapes.  The large pumpkin shape (not part of the set) is one that I've had in my pantry for many years, and every Halloween, I always reach for it because it makes such a great cookie.

Making any type of sugar cookie decorated with royal icing requires some planning, time management, and very good ingredients.  I like to begin these projects several days before the event, so that I don't run into problems. Recently, I had the pleasure of making some bridal shower cookies in the shapes of tuxedos and wedding dresses for a dear neighbor.  Although I have never created any wedding cookies before, I do own several cookie cutters perfect for such an occasion.  The wedding dress cookie was made with a copper cutter that I purchased from a very good friend several years ago, and the tuxedo top came from a recent purchase of Sweet Sugarbelle cookie cutters at Michael's .  If you don't own the shape shifters set from Sweet Sugarbelle, I highly recommend getting it because the cookie cutters lend themselves to so many things.   After baking the cookies, I made several batches of royal icing in black and white.  For this project, I made sure to have

The latest publication to come from the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living is a beautifully photographed, well-organized and practical cookbook dedicated to newlywed couples.  One should look at Martha's 'Newlywed Kitchen' as a sensible, attainable and delicious compilation of recipes for anyone starting a home. In this book you will get tips on how to stock a pantry, what essential kitchenwares to buy for your home, choosing the right china and linens for the table, and of course, a good amount of recipes for weekday meals, weekend brunches, desserts and even holiday get-togethers.     Personally, I think it's rather genius to have a cookbook with recipes that make two servings, instead of the usual four and over.  Martha's book will not only be useful for the newlywed couple, but it will be exceptionally helpful for any couple who wants to cook fresh, delicious meals, without having to waste time, energy and resources making large quantities of food.  As I

Baby pumpkin onesie cookies and baby face sugar cookies are great for surprising a mother-to-be this autumn.  These cookies are so adorable and easy to make, that you're going to want to bake dozens of them for the expecting mother's baby shower.  Find appropriate cookie cutters, some good recipes for sugar cookies and royal icing, and set aside a day or two to pipe the simple designs onto baked and cooled cookies. From the designers and coppersmiths at  CopperGifts , the baby face cookie was made with the boy cutter from the  Baby Face Boy and Girl Cookie Cutter Set .  The cute onesie was made with the  Baby Onesie Cookie Cutter .  I used my heirloom sugar cookie recipe and my royal icing recipe (use the search engine on the blog to find the recipes) for the cookies you see here. Once the cookies had been baked and cooled, I mixed small batches of royal icing in ivory (baby face), light brown (baby eyes and hair), light pink (baby's mouth), avocado green (ones