The Aprils: Sugar and sprinkles

Well, I thought I would be posting about our move before I got to any of my kitchen adventures, but as it turns out, unpacking and redecorating is far less entertaining than baking. So this what you get for now!

I was absolutely itching to get back into the kitchen. I packed up all of my baking ingredients and supplies a few weeks before we moved, so I would be forced to pack and clean and not be distracted by confections. What do you know, I was baking just two days after this move, and we made sure that the kitchen was one of the first things that got done. A family made up of a great cook and a great baker needs a kitchen. We didn't even have our bed fully assembled before we were back at the stove and oven!

If you've been keeping up with our blog, you'll know that I am challenging myself to a new baking adventure at least once a month. I knew exactly what I wanted to do first, and that was roll-out sugar cookies. You might think these are easy. You might think these are no big deal. But I was determined to find the perfect recipe. And by perfect I mean not too sweet, not too salty, easy to handle, something that didn't need to be refrigerated, and that had a great texture (sturdy but soft in the middle). I tried several recipes. Some I never even rolled out and attempted to cut because I just didn't even like the taste. I had one that I absolutely loved, but when I went to roll it out, it was a sticky, buttery mess. That was just not going to fly.

So I contacted my friend Sarah from Infinite Sweets. You might recognize her as the amazing baker who did our wedding cake and cupcakes! Sarah is a good friend of ours from Millersville, and I am so thankful she lets me bug her about everything baking. She has saved me several times with just a suggestion or a mini-lesson through text message. I told her what I wanted, what I was struggling with, and she helped me figure out what I needed to change. She seriously saved me on this one!

This is the point at which I wish I could share my recipe. The fact of the matter is that I don't quite have a concrete one. It's slightly vague, but that's kind of how I do my recipes. All of them are written down, but they all have notes scribbled in the margins. A few of them are in my head. And a handful of them, I do by feel with a written recipe as a guide. Also, I have started adapting some recipes to measure ingredients by weight, because it is so much more efficient and accurate.

What I can tell you is that I replaced the granulated sugar in a recipe I really enjoyed with approximately 2.5x the powdered sugar. Then, when I added the flour, I scaled back and added it back in little by little until it felt right. That seemed to do the trick with making the dough less sticky, more manageable, and it still tasted great. I will work on putting that jumbled description into something comprehensible outside of Lynn's brain... Hahaha.

Nonetheless, I of course had a blast taking pictures of what I ended up decorating with royal icing. Royal icing and I are old friends since I've been there done that with cake decorating! I was happy to be able to combine and old skill with a new one to check my first conquest off of my list!

Ready to bake!