My friend had a cookie decorating party—which is such a great idea, and I wonder if I have enough interested friends to host my own??—so I got to learn some decorating techniques. I’ve only done royal icing decoration once before, and it went OK, but I was excited to learn from a live human being.

They don’t look terrible! I liked the wreath so much I made my own at home (featured image). Still a ways to go until I’m winning any cookie competitions, but I like how they came out. The major issue with this is it’s both somewhat time sensitive and detailed…as a brute force crafter, those are not my strengths, lmao. But maybe that’s exactly why it’s good to practice.

Separately, I made speculaas cookies for St. Nicholas’s feast day. This definitely seems like an Olde Europe(tm) recipe in that the cookies are not very good, but I can def see kids in 17th century Netherlands losing their minds over them. JP liked them. She’s an old soul. (Ok, they’re not bad. I ate 50. But I think next year we’re doing sugar cookies )

The main thing I’m learning about all this is I need to set aside at least 25% more time than I think I’ll need. And I need to make sure the toddler is wrangled…although she (sort of) helped with the speculaas cookies, mostly by getting flour all over the counter and dragging the cookie cutter around in int. But, very cutely, she’s still asking about cookie stars, so I guess they made an impression. 🙂