Drop In & Decorate

Drop In & Decorate gets some Inc.

The idea came to me not in a vision, or in a sugar high brought on by the licking of fingers while icing cookies.

No, the idea came, as all good ones do, from a word here and a word there, from people who over the past six years have offered to help defray the cost of my own super-sized Drop In & Decorate, and from those who have hosted cookies-for-donation events, small and large, in their communities.

And so, it's official: we are now DROP IN & DECORATE, INC., a nonprofit organization headquartered in Rhode Island.

Why incorporate?

To be able to secure donations of decorating supplies, and to raise money.

Why does Drop In & Decorate need contributions?

Good question. Our mission is to provide technical and financial assistance to people who want to host cookies-for-donation events in their own communities, and to encourage other related activities involving the donation of food and the building of bridges between groups in a community.

What kind of technical and financial assistance?

We'll be helping hosts defray the cost of hosting an event, by asking companies to offer discounts on baking supplies or to donate supplies such as cookie cutters, baking sheets, etc., to anyone who hosts a Drop In & Decorate party. If you have hosted an event, or are thinking about it for the future, please let us know what else we can do to help you.

One of our first projects will be to find a corporate partner to create a Drop In & Decorate cookie decorating kit that will represent real value to hosts, and that will be sold online and in retail locations. Last year we tested a baking kit with King Arthur Flour; this year, we're concentrating on the decorating supplies.

And what kind of encouragement?

We'll also be using our funds to generate some publicity for Drop In & Decorate, so we can encourage more people to host their own cookies-for-donation events, and to build this web site as a resource for ingredient sourcing, advice, and reporting on Drop In news and events wherever they take place. We'll tell you more about some of the agencies that have received cookie donations, too.

And we're producing a short video (already in the works) aimed at high school students, about how to organize Drop In events to fulfill their community service requirement for graduation.

Of course, some day we'd love to be able to offer on-site assistance and inspiration to event organizers around the country. (Perhaps a traveling squad of cheerleaders? Hmmmm, perhaps not.)

Those are just a few of the ideas of what we can do now that we're an Inc..

I hope you'll be part of our future, as a volunteer, Drop In party host, donor, skill-sharer or advice-giver, and I thank you for all you've done to make Drop In & Decorate Inc.-worthy.

We should celebrate!

Cookies, anyone?

(PS: Starting from the top, the photos are from Edwin's Drop In for the Washington DC Ronald McDonald House, Cibby's birthday Drop In for Providence Ronald McDonald House, Jenna's Drop In for The TIMES Center in Champaign IL, and Dea's Drop In for Lifespan Respite Care in Ashland WI. Thanks to all for sharing their wonderful photos.)

Squeeze bottles: a great alternative for icing

I'm always looking for the next great cookie decorating idea to share, for ways to make hosting your own Drop In & Decorate party easier, faster, and more affordable.

At my most recent party, a Mother's Day/May Day cookie decorating afternoon, we tested some products that worked really well, and that we'll certainly be using next time.

For the icing, in addition to pastry bags, we tried squeeze bottles. Made by Wilton for decorating candy, the bottles come in a set of 18, though you can buy them in sets of 2 for $1.99 on Wilton's web site. (I purchased ours at Michael's, a chain craft store.)

The bottles are easy to wash and they're reusable, which is an advantage over the disposable clear pastry bags we've been using. The caps keep the icing from drying out. Because the bottles are translucent, you can see the icing color inside.

Many folks found the squeeze bottles easier to use; others preferred the pastry bags for the variety of sizes of tips, and greater control.

One downside is that the bottles hold less icing than the pastry bags. I'll look for bottles that are slightly taller, but not larger in diameter so they'll still be easy for hands of all sizes to grip.

My husband Ted made the stand to hold the bottles upside down, which kept air bubbles from forming. He took a piece of scrap wood, drilled one-inch holes, and made the legs out of leftover parts from our printer's ink cartridges! The bottles could rest with the nozzles facing down, high enough off the table.

My recommendation: Try squeeze bottles for your icing.

Mother's Day/May Day Drop In party

At our first-ever May Day/Mother's Day Drop In & Decorate cookies for donation party last Sunday, more than 30 people dropped in to decorate cookies for Abby's House, a multi-service center for homeless and battered women in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Read more about it and see some of our fabulous cookies here.

If you're inspired to host your own Drop In & Decorate cookies for donation party, we have a free How to Host Your Own Cookie Decorating Event guide to help you get started. It's filled with practical information about sources for supplies, recipes for cookies and icing, and tips from others who've hosted their own cookies-for-donation parties.

[If you downloaded the guide before May 1, please be sure to get the latest version, with many updates.]

Bake, decorate, donate: how we got started

Thank you, Martha Stewart -- if it weren't for your flooded-icing cookies, and my friend Candy's insistence that we could do better, none of this would have happened.You can read all about it here.

DROP IN & DECORATE SUGAR COOKIES
Reprinted from the archives, our best, most delicious sugar cookie recipe. See note below for making multiple batches. Makes 16-20 large (4-5 inch) sugar cookies.

3-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/4 cups best quality unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 Tbsp milk
2-1/2 tsp best quality pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a couple of baking sheets with a Silpat or parchment paper. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. In another large bowl or the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar, until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla, and continue to beat until well blended and smooth. Beat flour mixture into the butter mixture until smooth. Divide dough in half. Place one half on a sheet of parchment paper or wax paper; cover with another sheet and roll to 1/4 inch. Repeat with second half of dough. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes, or up to a couple of days (or, if making far in advance, you can freeze at this point. Wrap sheets tightly in plastic wrap). Remove one sheet from the refrigerator; peel off the top wax paper, then replace paper and invert dough. Peel off and discard what is now the top sheet of paper, and cut out the cookies. (cookies will spread, so do not place too close together on the baking sheet). Reroll scraps, refrigerating if necessary to firm the dough. Bake for 6-9 minutes, or until just lightly colored on top and slightly darker at the edges. Rotate sheets halfway through for even browning. Remove pans from oven and let cookies cool 2-3 minutes. Then remove cookies to a rack and let cool completely. (At this point, the cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks, in layers separated by parchment or wax paper.) After the cookies are completely cooled, decorate with Royal Icing. Place the decorated cookies on a tray and leave out overnight, uncovered, to harden. The next morning, package in food-safe cellophane bags or cookie tins.

*Note: to make multiple batches, do NOT double the recipe. It’s hard to control proportions. Instead, make multiples of the original recipe, one batch at a time, for guaranteed success!

*Another note: Rolled sheets of cookie dough can be made ahead and frozen (or, if you're going to use them within a day or two, you can stack the rolled sheets of dough on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator). Let defrost until dough is pliable enough to be cut without breaking cookies, but not necessarily completely defrosted.