Easter is still a week away and Cole is already preparing for the Easter Bunny’s arrival. Today he wrote several notes for Mr. Bunny, and made bunnies out of pipe-cleaner and foam paper. These little handmade treasures are now hidden around our house for the Easter Bunny to find. I only hope that I..*ahem*… I mean, Easter Bunny, can find them all on Easter Eve.
We’ll be away visiting my parents over Easter, so I wanted to make an Easter treat with the kids this weekend while I had time. These sugar cookies with egg-yolk paint were a simple and fun activity that we all enjoyed. Weekends are our time to have some fun and make a mess in the kitchen together.
I didn’t have any egg-shaped cookie-cutters, so I just used a plastic cup. It was a Spiderman cup, of course. If you’re not cool enough to own a plastic Spiderman cup, then I suppose you could use any plastic cup that is somewhat bendable. I squeezed it on both sides to form an oval shape as I pressed it down into the dough.
Cole took that photo of my hands because I don’t have three hands, although that would be handy for taking food photos. I think he did a pretty good job! Pretty, pretty good <insert Larry David’s voice>. I’ll have to request his photography services more often.
Next, we whisked egg yolk.
Isn’t that a nifty pottery egg separator? I got it for Christmas. Yes, I just used the word ‘nifty.’ All of us cool Spiderman cup-owning moms talk like that. It’s how we roll.
So then we divided the yolk into a few bowls and added food colouring.
And finally it was time for the best part: decorating!
When they came out of the oven, they had puffed up nicely, and the egg yolk paint created a shiny and colourful coating on them.
They tasted terrific too, much better than actual eggs in my opinon.
Here are the boys showing off their creations.
Sugar Cookies
From Betty Crocker
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
In a large mixing bowl, mix together powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract and egg. Add remaining ingredients and mix again until fully combined. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours
Roll out dough on floured surface and cut into egg shapes.
Egg yolk paint: Whisk 1 egg yolk with 1/4 tsp water. Divide into several small bowls and tint with food colouring as desired.
Decorate cookies by brushing egg-yolk paints onto the egg-shaped cookie dough. Place cookies onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake at 375F for 7-8 minutes, until edges are golden. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
Makes approx. 4 dozen cookies.