After six days of a fever and nasty cough, the doctor’s prognosis for my boy is pneumonia ~poor thing! We caught it before its become severe, and hopefully the medicine will now knock it out quick. I love him dearly, feel bad for him, wish him well, but we are now going on day 6 under this roof.  No sympathy, but you can probably understand that a mom in a house with a sick boy and naughty dachshund can make one a little stir crazy.                                                                                                             

Enough whining…  I’ve been on a roll with sugar cookie lollipops lately and wanted to post a few pics. These are great for birthday favors and for team events, and they look pretty cute all wrapped up. Sometimes fancy sugar cookies look great, but taste bad. The sugar cookie recipe I use is from Susan at On Becoming Doughmesstic. This sugar cookie recipe has gotten great reviews every time I make a batch. The dough is soft, which may make it a little more challenging rolling it out, but it is worth it. The dash of lemon extract is the best part. These stay fresh for a long time, which allow you to make them  several days ahead of time. I usually do them in stages. The first night I make the dough and royal icing. The second day I roll out the cookies, and decorate on the third day. It breaks it up so it doesn’t seem like that much work.

Cake Journal has a great tutorial with pictures on making these cookie pops. I’ll give a brief run-down. 

The first cookie pops were for my best girlfriend’s  girls’ birthdays. They had their joint party at an old-fashioned candy store. The kids decorated cupcakes and went on a candy scavenger hunt in the store ~ so much fun! These lollipops were pretty easy to make. After flooding the cookie, while it was still a bit wet, I piped a swirl on it, which seeped right in, making it look lollipop-ish. I had fun playing with all of the color combos.

The soccer ball and baseball cookie pops were for team parties. I made the little flags on the baseball cookies to show off the team name. They were for my son’s team. The season is now in full swing (no pun intended)!

Here’s what you need…

• sugar cookie dough
• royal icing
• gel colorings
• lollipop sticks from a craft store
• squeeze bottle (or piping bag, but squeeze bottle works better)
• cellophane bags & ribbon

Here’s what to do… Once the cookies are rolled out, place them upside down on the cookie sheet (see photo above). Then, add a stick by gently pressing into the middle of the cookie. Next, take a small piece of dough and shape it into a flat rectangular-ish shape and cover the stick. Press down gently. This extra piece of dough gives it more support, so that the cookie stays on the stick. Finally carefully turn the cookie over so that the stick is on the bottom and bake as directed.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies (Recipe from On Becoming Doughmesstic)

makes about 5 dozen

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon Lemon Extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

In mixer, cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add in eggs, vanilla, and lemon extract beating until smooth. Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt until incorporated. Coverand chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight) to make rolling out simpler.
Preheat oven to 390 degrees F. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter or by hand. Place cookies 1 inch apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment or a Silpat.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Allow to cool completely.

Decorate with Royal Icing, if desired.