Friday is... Bride Day!

So we have Motivational Mondays, why not do Bride Day Friday?! Every Friday I'll post about wedding-related topics. Whether it be advice, thoughts, or rants, I'll supply you with the good, the bad, and the ugly that is sure to follow over the next nine and a half months leading up to my big day.

 This first post falls in the category of 'Good', I'd say. For my Fiance, Eric, and I's engagement party I wanted to bake the desserts myself. I found a picture of these adorable engagement ring sugar cookies on Pinterest (pictured above) and was inspired to try my hand at making them myself using a copy-cat lofthouse cookie recipe I had used for some Christmas cookies I baked (below).

These cookies turned out amazing when I baked them at Christmastime; soft, the perfect amount of sweet, and extremely addicting. I knew the cookie-baking part of this process would be easy, it was the decorating part I was slightly concerned about. The final product ended up turning out OK, but being the perfectionist that I am, I think they could've looked better. I did receive several compliments on how delicious and cute they were though, so as long as the guests were happy, so was I. Here is the Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies recipe I used from Authentic Suburban Gourmet's blog, which was originally adapted from Recipe Secrets.

Ingredients:

For the Cookies:
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sour cream (light or regular, I've used both with the same result)

For the Frosting:
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons heavy cream

Black icing color
Clear vanilla extract
Wilson's silver shimmer dust

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time beating until each is incorporated. Add the vanilla and sour cream and beat at low speed until combined.

Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed. Divide dough into two sections. Flatten into rectangles about 1 1/2 inches thick, then wrap with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator overnight or for at least two hours until firm.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray, set aside.

Generously flour a work area and rolling pin. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2.5" round cookie cutter, or the 3.75" ring cookie cutter (which obviously cut down on the amount of cookies yielded), cut out shape and transfer to a baking sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes, until pale golden. Immediately transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

To make the frosting:

Cream together the butter and vanilla in a large bowl. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar. Once smooth and creamy, add in heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time until the desired spreading consistency is achieved. 

Because this makes a lot of frosting, I frosted all the cookies once they had cooled completely, but did not use all of the frosting. Then, with the remainder of the frosting, I added a couple drops black icing color until I achieved the shade of gray I wanted for the 'ring' part of the cookie. I transferred the gray frosting into a piped bag and created the circle and 'prongs' to create the base of the ring. I then mixed the shimmer dust with clear vanilla extract to create a sort of edible paint and used a fondant brush to paint over the gray ring portion of the cookie. This created a silver, or should I say more 'white gold', effect to the cookie.

Allow frosting to set, then store in an air-tight container. Let cookies sit for several hours before serving to allow the flavors to develop.

I really wish I had taken more pictures of these cookies (this is honestly the only one I have), but now I know better for next time. There are a few things I would do different if I had to make them again, such as cutting a smaller hole in my piping bag, or using a smaller tip to create a more precise shape with the silver frosting. I also would have waited to store them in the container until the frosting had more time to set, because as you can see some of the frosting flattened from the cookies being stacked on top of each other. Oh well, you live and you learn. 

This truly is one of my favorite cookie recipes, so whether you make them bridal-style or not, I'm sure you will satisfy your sweet tooth. Thank you so much for reading and enjoy!! :)

xox Danielle