Drop In & Decorate: Tips and techniques

Tips and techniques

December 07, 2009

We love our Beater Blade. You'll love it, too.

Sometimes one small change in kitchen equipment can make all the difference, and that's what happened when we bought a Beater Blade for our KitchenAid stand mixer.

The blade, which retails for $20 or so, comes sized for KitchenAid, Viking, Cuisinart and Kenwood mixers. The outside edges of the beater have a rubber layer that works just like a rubber spatula. That means that you don't have to stop your mixer to scrape down the bowl.

We've used the Beater Blade to mix our sugar cookie dough. But where the blade really shines is in making Royal icing.

This is one tool you'll want to have in your cookie-making kitchen.

Posted at 11:30 PM in Supplies and sources, Tips and techniques | Permalink | Comments (2)

December 03, 2009

Keep it clean: food safety reminders

We're hosting our 8th Annual Holiday Drop In & Decorate® event here in Rhode Island this weekend, and reminding everyone of the importance of working clean in the kitchen while you're baking and decorating.

If you prepare or handle food for donation, you must be sure you meet the highest standards of sanitation. Recipient agencies trust that the food you donate is safe for the agency's clients, so please follow these basic guidelines.

We recommend using non-latex thin vinyl gloves, available at any pharmacy and most supermarkets in boxes of 50. They're inexpensive and disposable.

Do not handle cookies if you are sick (even if you are wearing gloves).
Tie your hair back.
Wash your hands thoroughly in hot soapy water.
Wear gloves when handling any baked cookies, decorating cookies, or wrapping and packing cookies.
Change gloves often.
Do not reuse gloves.
Do not wear gloves to the bathroom.
Do not go outside with gloves on.

Have plenty of hand sanitizer near your kitchen and bathroom sinks, and near the front door.

And this is the hardest one: If one of your guests has a cold, please encourage him or her to stay home.

Follow these guidelines, and your wonderful cookies will be even better.

Posted at 11:15 PM in Tips and techniques | Permalink | Comments (3)

November 14, 2009

Making cookies-for-donation easier, with cookie mix in a box

Know what's great about Drop In & Decorate cookies?

There's no one right way to bake or decorate! While many hosts use our sugar cookie and icing recipes, many do their own thing.

We love that.

One of our goals is to make hosting a Drop In & Decorate® event easier and more affordable, and the nice folks at Pillsbury have partnered with us this month to help. They've donated 90 VIP coupons, worth $3.00 off any Pillsbury baking mix, frosting or flour.

Last week we baked up a batch of Pillsbury's reduced-sugar cookie mix, which is one of the items you can purchase with Pillsbury's coupons.

The mix is formulated to make drop cookies, but we decided to try rolling the dough to cut out with some of our large cookie cutters.

It worked!

We did make a few adjustments to the directions on the box. First, we chilled the dough (45 minutes in the refrigerator, or 5-10 minutes in the freezer) to make it easier to cut out. While the package makes three dozen small drop cookies, we were able to make 10-12 large cookies with the same amount of dough. We placed the cookies farther apart, six to a cookie sheet, to give them plenty of room.

Cookie dough mix can be a real time-saving alternative to making your cookies from scratch. If you make the smaller drop cookies, it's also an economical way to make a large number of cookies for donation.

It's nice to have a reduced-sugar option, too.

(Email to lydia AT ninecooks DOT com if you'd like Pillsbury VIP coupons; available while supply lasts.)

--------------------

Special thanks to Kalyn's Kitchen, Tartelette, Lucullian Delights and Last Night's Dinner.

Posted at 12:00 PM in Supplies and sources, Tips and techniques | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 04, 2009

How to make perfectly red icing

Until this past December's Drop In & Decorate® party here in Rhode Island, we struggled with our reds.

Too dark, too pink, too anemic. We've had them all.

This year, we got great red.

With some technical advice from Bridget (Bake at 350), here's how we did it.

Posted at 10:15 AM in Tips and techniques | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 14, 2009

Valentine cookies spread the love in San Diego

The Rotaract Club on the University of California/San Diego campus really knows how to spread the love!

A couple of months ago, Frances, the club's social chair, had read about Drop In & Decorate® events on another web site, and contacted us for some "cookie tech support" and for help in finding a recipient agency in her area.

Last week, members of Rotaract (the college affiliate of Rotary International) decorated beautiful heart-shaped cookies, and donated them to Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego.

Frances sent us these photos (we love photos!) and she shared some tips for how she made her cookies-for-donation event easier and affordable for busy college students:

What I ended up doing was buying sugar cookie dough in a bag, the kind where you just add an egg and butter. Instead of making the royal icing, which I had originally intended on doing, I bought Betty Crocker cookie decorating icing. It comes in squeeze bags and you just cut the tip off and can decorate right away. It takes only a few minutes to set and four hours to completely harden. I thought you might want to know for any future decorators who don't have the time to make the icing.

It was really fun, my club enjoyed it a lot. It also went much more quickly than I thought it would. The cookies are very pretty and I intend on trying to do this again with future clubs or volunteer events. Thanks again!