Tuesday Tute- 8 is Great Cookie Bouquet

Since I am the primary president now, I have a new outlet for my creativity to go. We just had our "Great To Be Eight" fireside the other night. We invited all the children in our ward who will be turning 8 this year, and their families to come and learn a little bit about the Faith in God program, cub scouts, activity days and a tour of the baptismal font, etc.

We wanted to decorate the refreshment table in a fun way, yet keeping it subtle and simple. So I decided to make a colorful cookie bouquet with 8-shaped sugar cookies, frosted in the primary colors.

I looked online for an 8-shape cookie cutter; but even when the price may be a dollar or less, the shipping/handling cost makes it not worth it, not to mention the chance that it may not get here in time to use. So I came up with an idea to make my own 8-shape cutter.

Here's how I made my "Great to be 8" cookie bouquet...

Supplies:
-Chilled Sugar Cookie Dough (I used this soft sugar cookie recipe.)
-A strong plastic cup
-Scissors
-A small lid (like off a glue stick)
-Wooden Skewers
-Frosting and Sprinkles, etc.
-Vase and floral foam (to stick the skewers into)

How to cut an 8-shape:
1. Cut the bottom off a plastic cup. (I used a short 9oz cup.)
2. Cut about a 1 1/2 inch opening down there.

3. Roll out the dough on a floured surface about 1/4 inch thick.
4. Cut one side at a time, meeting in the middle. (It's really not very complicated and goes pretty fast!)

5. Cut the 2 holes with a small lid.

6. Carefully move to pan or stone with a spatula.

7. Bake until slightly golden (about 8-9 minutes at 350).

How to make cookie into a "flower":
8. Take out of oven and let sit for about 2-3 minutes before inserting skewers.
9. Move to cooling rack and carefully insert skewers, pointed side in, twisting gently to push through middle of cookie. (Cookie and skewer will adhere together really well as it cools.)

10. Let cool completely before frosting!


Making the bouquet:
11. Frost cookies with butter-cream frosting, and decorate as desired. Set aside and let frosting harden.
12. Prepare vase with floral foam. (If your vase it clear, you will need something to hide the foam. I stuffed some red ribbon in mine because I couldn't find my cool marble-rocks. Worked well!)
13. Carefully stick skewers into the floral foam and arrange as desired.
14. Tie ribbon/bow around the vase, and you've got a beautiful, tasty centerpiece!!


Some other notes:
-I tried Fondant icing to see if it would be easier than regular frosting. It's nice because you can roll out and cut it to match the cookie perfect. But there were two big reasons I didn't end up using it. 1) Sprinkles won't stick to it. 2) It tastes AWFUL!! I even tried mixing almond flavoring into it and it did not help.
-Would I do this project again? Absolutely! It really wasn't hard, and turned out really cute. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it- in more ways than one!