Rainbow Cookies {Slice and Bake}

Sometimes, in the middle of cold and flu season, I wonder if the feds are going to come and knock down my front door. They will take me away and interrogate me for my extra large purchases of Sudafed and search my house in hopes of finding my meth lab.

You know, the one I keep in my basement?

Just kidding, I don't have a basement.

Ever since they started carding for the little red miracle pills, I feel a little like a druggie every time I go to the pharmacy.

"Can I have the generic Sudafed please? A 96?" I ask.

"We're out of 96," replies the pharmacist.

"Okay, then two 48's?" I inquire, discreetly sliding my driver's license across the counter like I'm expecting to be slipped a little white packet or something.

I think I've bought Sudafed at least four or five times just this school year so far. And, with the way things are going, I anticipate needing to buy it a few more times before summer. (You all remember how I pop the little red pills at the first hint of stuffiness, to ward of ear infections, right? That I'm really not an addict?)

The problem is that they only let you buy two packages. Only one if it's the 96-pack. You can buy two 48-packs. But the thing I don't understand? They won't let you buy four 24-packs. Um, what's the difference between if I buy one 96 or four 24's? Oh well, no one ever said our government had common sense.

How does that relate to these cookies? It doesn't. It's just that I'm kinda in the middle of a Sudafed-fever-induced fog and couldn't thing of anything glittery and rainbowey with a side of unicorns to write about.

Have I mentioned my kid is a horrible sharer? Unless it's germs. Then she gives them away freely.

I made these cookies for Jordan's birthday party, but they would be perfect for St. Patrick's Day. Now, they take a little work but the overall product is totally worth it.

I swear, I think these are the best tasting (flavor and texture) sugar cookies I've ever eaten. The dough is a bitch to work with, it's very sticky and kinda gets everywhere, but you'll thank me, I promise. They are that good.

The secret is to freeze the dough before slicing. And then you freeze them again before baking, to reduce spreading.

I made clouds for some of my cookies. I dyed the batter white and rolled up little balls to place at the ends of the rainbow.

I also bent the rainbows a little to go with the clouds. They looked better that way.

Bake them, and try not to eat the whole batch. These are some seriously addictive cookies.

Kind of like Sudafed.

Rainbow Slice and Bake Cookies

by Crazy for Crust

Recipe from Good Life Eats

6018681

Ingredients

• 2 ¼ cups unsalted butter (4 ½ sticks)
• 3 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 6 cups flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• Gel food colorings: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and white (if you do not wish to have clouds, you can skip the white)

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Combine butter and sugar in a stand mixer and beat well, for about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and yolks, mixing until combined. Stir in vanilla and almond extract.
3. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, about 1 cup at a time, stirring with the paddle attachment to incorporate. Dough will be sticky.
4. If you want clouds, separate ¼ of the dough into a separate bowl and color it white. Then equally divide the rest of the batter into six separate piles. (If you are not making clouds, just divide it into six portions from the beginning.)
5. Color each of the six portions of dough a different color, one for each color of the rainbow. I did this by using a hand mixer and rinsing the beaters and the bowl in between each color. Wrap each color individually in plastic wrap and chill for about a half an hour.
6. Working with one dough at a time, place each color between two sheets of wax paper and roll into a large rectangle. (The dough will still be pretty sticky at this point.) Once you have 6 flat rectangles of dough (each between two sheets of wax paper), chill them until they are firm, at least an hour.
7. Remove from refrigerator. Place the purple layer on a new sheet of waxed paper. Layer the colors: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until very firm.
8. If you are making clouds: roll the white portion into small balls and chill.
9. When you are ready to bake, heat the oven to 350°. Remove dough from freezer and slice strips across the shorter side about ¼ inch thick and then cut each strip in half (or desired size). Place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze again to minimize spreading while baking. (This dough softens up very quickly.)
10. If you want clouds, place a white ball at each end of the rainbow (I “bent” my rainbows a little before attaching the clouds) and press to resemble clouds. I didn't have enough clouds for the entire batch, but that was fine. I ended up with about 24 cloud rainbows and the rest were plain.
11. Bake for 6-10 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Serve with smiles and green milk for St. Patrick’s Day!

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Cupcake Topped Rainbow Cupcakes

Kind of a mouthful for a title, isn't it?

Will you indulge me while I wax poetic for a moment?

My daughter turned seven yesterday. Seven. As in, three years from being double digits. Halfway to being in High School. Just over ten years from now? I'll be kissing her good-bye as she leaves for college (unless I can convince her to live at home forever and allow me to still put pigtails in her hair and dress her in separates from Carter's).

Seven years ago I was given a precious gift. One I cherish every single day. I know I bitch about her a lot because, in all fairness, she does drive me crazy, but I still can't believe I get to be her mom. She's truly our little miracle (and boy, does she know it).

I get a little sad thinking about how fast it all goes. How fast I want it to go when I'm in the middle of it, because ohmygodIcan'tstanditonemoresecond. But then I blinked and she's a kid. How did that happen?

So, Happy Birthday to my sweet baby. 'Cuz no matter how much you scream at me "I AM NOT A BABY!!!" you still are, to me.

Okay, let me clear my throat, wipe my eyes, and we can move on.  Let's talk cupcakes, shall we?

This cupcake topper idea comes from one of my favorite blogs to stalk read, Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  She used  Reese's. I wanted rainbow colors. And I was going to do just solid candy, but Jordan had other ideas. She wanted cake balls.

I used my candy cup mold (from Michael's). I wanted them to be somewhat flat, so I only used about 1/4 teaspoon of cake ball. This is a great way to use up some of those cupcakes stored in your freezer. Fill the candy mold with a little candy, top with a cake ball, and then add more candy. Level it off, tap to settle, and freeze until hardened. Repeat to get all the rainbow colors. (I used some colored candy melts, some white candy melts and Wilton candy color. You can use whatever you have.)

I'm sure you've seen these cupcakes before. They were in Family Fun Magazine a few years ago for St. Patrick's Day. They take a lot of steps, but are totally cool.

You start with cake mix (I used two). Divide it equally into 6 bowls and color each with food coloring.

Then layer them into your cupcake liners. I used quart-sized Ziploc bags to make the piping and clean-up easier. FYI, one cake mix will not make 24 cupcakes using this method, as it normally does. It'll make about 18 or so.

I frosted the cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting. Place your mini cupcake cake ball on top and frost it with more frosting. A cupcake topper for a cupcake!

I had a little left over of each color, so I took my silicone muffin pan and made one of each color (see bottom right picture). That will get turned into the cake.

The finished cupcakes are brilliant in color. If you don't mind the whole eating food coloring thing. No one at this party seemed to mind, which was good. Because everything had food coloring in it.

With those extra cupcakes, I made Jordan her own "little" cake. The "7" is a fruit roll-up, cut with a cookie cutter.  And the inside of the cake?

A rainbow! I surprised her with the cake and she loved it. (I had to use a lollipop stick as a dowel.)

These cupcakes (and the cake, too) would be great for St. Patrick's day. I love how that day is not just green, but all things rainbow.

Thanks for reading!

Cupcake Topped Rainbow Cupcakes

by Crazy for Crust (Idea from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen)

Ingredients

For the Rainbow Cupcakes

• 2 boxes white cake mix, prepared with eggs, oil, and water called for
• Food coloring: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple (you can use the regular grocery store kind and mix the colors, but gel food coloring works best for vibrant colors)
• A double batch of Marshmallow Frosting, or your favorite white frosting

For the Cupcake Toppers

• Candy Melts in rainbow colors OR white candy melts with candy coloring
• Cake pop mixture (I used a few cupcakes I had in the freezer and some canned icing)
• Candy Cup Mold

Instructions

Make the Cupcakes

1. Mix the cake batter according to the recipe or box directions. Line your muffin tins with cupcake liners. (Recipe makes 32-36 cupcakes.)
2. Divide your batter evenly among six bowls, about 1 1/2 cups of batter per bowl. Add food coloring to each bowl, one for each color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple). Stir to combine.
3. You are going to layer the cupcakes into the liners in a reverse rainbow, so the purple is on the bottom and the red is on the top. To make this easier to do, place each color in a separate quart-sized Ziploc bag. Seal the bag almost all the way, leaving about 1/2" open for air to escape. Snip off a tiny corner and place a small amount in each cupcake liner, starting with purple (use just enough to cover the bottom of the liner). Repeat with the remaining colors in this order: blue, green, yellow, orange, red.
4. Bake according to recipe directions. Let cool completely. Frost with white frosting, to resemble clouds.
5. Note: if you want to make a mini rainbow cake, you can do it by baking separate colors in muffin tins. Place about 1/2" of batter in each muffin tin hole (one for each color). Stack up like a rainbow, frosting in between each layer. A 4" lollipop stick makes a good dowel.

Make the Cupcake Toppers

1. Melt your candy melts according to package directions. Fill the candy cup mold about ½ full with one color. Place about ¼ teaspoon of cake ball mixture on top and cover with more candy. Tap to release air bubbles and freeze until hardened, about 5 minutes. Remove from mold and continue until all the colors you want are finished.
2. Alternately, you could make these pure candy, no cake ball inside. Or, fill with anything: peanut butter, chocolate, just plain frosting, whatever you can dream of!

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Rainbow Birthday Party

Wait...you're wondering where the dessert picture is, right?

I'm taking a little break from desserts today to show you the party I threw for Jordan last weekend. It was her "fake" 7th birthday (she says "fake" because her real birthday is this coming weekend, lest we forget to celebrate it with more cake and presents). Right around Christmas she told me she wanted a rainbow party. I was excited because there is so much that can be done around rainbows.

Enter Pinterest.

Just search "Rainbow Party" on Pinterest and you come up with tons of great ideas. Many of which I incorporated here.

First up, an invitation.

It was inspired by one I found on Etsy. I lucked out and found a digital scrapbooking layout on Etsy, at a shop called hellolovetoo. I created everything I made from that simple, $4 kit, using my Creative Memories scrapbooking software.

Then I went a little crazy with the making of labels and such. Waterbottles, name tags, bag tags, goody bags, a pennant, oh my!

Making the water bottle labels was way easier than I thought it would be. I designed the graphics using my software and rainbow kit. The labels are 8 1/2" long and 1 3/4" wide. I printed them, four to a sheet, on regular printer paper. The trick for getting them on the bottles? Packing tape! You just lay out a strip of tape, place the label face down, and wrap it around the bottle. These were so easy, Jordan helped me do it. Here's the tutorial I used from Glorious Treats.

I also printed labels for the cups and Jordan wrote each guests' name on the label. You can buy circle labels (1") or Booklet Seals (1 1/2") at office supply stores.

Each bag had a name badge label (also from the office supply) printed with "Thanks for coming to my party" and Jordan again wrote names on each one. I made rainbow cookies (tutorial and recipe coming soon!) to go in the goody bags.

I'm all about giving goody bag items that are usable. I included a crayon melt, pack of pens, and pad of paper. And I made tags just like I did with my Elf and Heart Munch, using the rainbow kit and regular printer paper. (The pens were from Party City. They came in a bag - not sorted. Jordan actually did all the sorting and helped me tape them together. She also taped all the bag labels on. I'm really liking this "able to help" age!)

We had a bounce house - because we could. See, in our old house I always wanted one but it wouldn't fit. So I had to get one this year because we can finally fit it. And then I prayed it wouldn't rain (it didn't).

When they weren't bouncing, they crafted. Jordan requested I buy the masks. I also bought beads and string, and tissue paper. The sequins were the biggest hit. Unfortunately I have shag carpet. I have a feeling I'll still be finding sequins on her 17th birthday.

Of course, the place setting was rainbow. The straws are from Cupcake Social on Etsy. The rainbow fruit kebabs were a great idea...until they became weapons.

The bubblegum was  huge hit - there was none left. I *think* a few girls pocketed bags full.

I was most proud of the cake and cupcakes, of course! I'll be posting the tutorial for those on Monday.

And, most importantly?

She was happy. She said it was her favorite party. And I especially loved that she helped so much. It made it even more special.

Thanks so much for reading! Back to the yummy goodness tomorrow.

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These are the fabulous parties I link to each week:

Monday: Mingle Monday (Add a Pinch), Joy of Desserts, Creative Monday (Clairejustineoxox), Mix it Up Monday (Flour Me With Love), Things that make you say mmmm Monday (Cooking with Karyn), Mop it Up Mondays (I should be mopping the floors), Show me what you got (Our Delightful Home). Tuesday: 2 Maids a Baking (2 Maids a Milking), Tea Party Tuesdays (Sweetology), Mushki Loves My Stuff (Mushki Loves), Totally Tasty Tuesdays (Mandy's Recipe Box), Talent Show Tuesday (Chef in Training), Trick or Treat Tuesday (Inside BruCrew Life), Let's Do Brunch (My Sweet & Savory), One Stop Shop Linky (The Southern Product Queen). Wednesday: Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party (Mrs. Fox's Sweets) Made It On Monday (Lark's Country Heart), This Chick Cooks, Cast Party Wednesday (Lady Behind the Curtain), Famous Linkz Par-tay (Made-Famous-By), Bakes with Bizzy (Bizzy Bakes), Whip it Up Wednesday (Crockpot Ladies).  Thursday: Sweet Treats Thursday (Something Swanky), Chic-and-Crafty (Frugal Girls), Turning the Table Thursdays (Around My Family Table), Tasty Thursday (The How-To Mommy), Tastetastic Thursday (A little nosh), Sweet Temptations (Talking Dollars and Cents), Taking a Timeout Thursday (Mom on Timeout), Things I've Done Thursday (BearRabbitBear), (RHW Recipe Round-Up) The Real Housewives of Riverton, BFF Open House (The Answer is Chocolate), Recipe Round Up (Eat, Pray, Read, Love). Friday: Sweet Tooth Friday (Alli-n-son), I'm Lovin' it Fridays (TidyMom), Friday Favorites (Simply Sweet Home), Latest & Greatest Friday (Days of Chalk and Chocolate), Bacon Time, Fusion Friday (Jane Deere Blog), Foodie Friday (Not Your Ordinary Recipes), Dwell on Joy, Fun Finds Friday (Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons). Saturday: Country Mom Cooks, Sweets for a Saturday (Sweet as Sugar Cookies), Seasonal Inspiration (Crumbs and Chaos), You inspire me (Polka Dot Pretties). Sunday: A Well-Seasoned Life,Sharing Sundays (Everyday Sisters), Strut your Stuff Saturday (Six Sisters' Stuff), Seasonal/Occasional Linkys: Moms Crazy Cooking, Southern Mom Cooks, Cheap Crafty Momma, Susie QT, Sharing Time (Raising Memories)