Monkey Bakes

I was the student when it came to these sugar cookies. Shaina had already made cookies with royal icing two times before. I wanted to try it with her and learn. I’ve always wanted to do it, but never got around to it!

These were a lot of fun to make. The worst part was cutting out the cupcakes because we had used a stencil Shaina hand drew. That was very time consuming.

Once the cutting, freezing, and baking was done, the decorating became a lot more fun. We had our own styles but quite similar.

Shaina made her cupcake “liners” adorable and fancy what with the ridges and the ‘folds’ of lines. I was jealous but decided to just do what I figured I wanted.

I just stuck to polka dots and marble on top. Some I put sprinkles like Shaina’s, most I didn’t.

We each did 6. We only made 12 cookies. We started at 10pm and ended around 1am. I was tired.

I still am…

I’m not as young as I used to be ya know.

I love how thick these cookies are. They just look so…beefy.

Want the recipe? It’s from Bake At 350.

Ingredients:

3 c unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 c sugar (I use sugar that I’ve stored vanilla beans in)
2 sticks butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pure almond extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.

Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.

Roll onto a floured surface and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.