Cookies and.....critters.

I love to bake and love to decorate when I am not feeling under pressure.I especially love to bake at Valentines day. For me, baking at Christmas is not enjoyable. Going here, going there. Valentines is pretty low key around here. Aaron and I usually do not go out and spend a ton of money on one another. It is simple.
Tonight, I made some really cute cookies. I was planning on making these cupcake pops, but remembered how much of a mess they made. I ended up creating my own recipe which was AWESOME! I love cherry chip cake mix at Valentines day. The dough was sticky to the touch, but with enough flour on the surface, it was perfect. The cutouts came out better than any other cut out cookie I have ever made. They were also a tad cakey. Here is what I did...
1 box of cherry chip cake
3 eggs
3 cups flour (an estimate)
1 cup sugar
1 cup of butter flavored Crisco..Yikes.
1 1/2 cups of water
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
Cream Crisco, sugar and eggs. Add dry ingredients and mix well. The dough will be very sticky, but firm. If it is too gooey, add a bit more flour until firm. Wrap in Saran Wrap and set it in the fridge until you are ready to use it (mine sat for about 4 hours). When you get the dough out, use it in small sections. Make sure your surface is floured well! The dough will still be sticky to the touch. Flour the top and roll out. I like my cookies a bit thicker, so I usually roll out to a little over a quarter inch thick. I placed the cutouts on parchment paper and baked for 7 minutes at 350. The cookies were still pale in color, and continued to bake a bit longer after they were out of the oven.
I used gel outline for the cookies. This type of gel is supposed to harden in cooler temps. So brilliant me put the cookies outside, covered, on our bbq grill. I kept a good eye on them in case any critters would come and visit. They turned out really cute. Here they are finished....


Now for the funny part...
After I had brought them in, I decorated them. I put the kids down and came down stairs to find someone peeking in our house at the cookies on the table. Apparently, this raccoon knew that I brought them inside and was wondering why I pulled a fast one on him.