For whatever reason July is a big birthday month for me - I must be naturally drawn to Cancers (as most of the birthdays seem to fall in the earlier part of the month)....anyway if you aren't lucky enough (read the sarcasm in that) to live with me you probably don't know I have 14 birthdays to celebrate in the month of July, and most of them are high profile friends and family. The birthday bonanza is coming to close so I did something special for the birthday party people on July 22nd.
I pulled out my copy of Martha Stewart Living magazine from February 1996 and I made the cut-out sugar cookies. I love the recipe because the dough is so heavy it doesn't spread. The cookies end up with great definition because they don't puff up and the cut lines don't get soft. I love a crisp cookie so I tend to roll them pretty thin and cook them until they are a lovely golden brown on the edges.
Melissa received a box full of Birthday Partini sugar cookies at work.
I feel that if you must work on your birthday you should have treats to hand out while you are there. I know this goes back to grade school when we could bring in treats on our birthday. I loved that - for that one day everyone was your friend, especially if you brought in a really great treat for the class.
The cookies were brushed with edible 'Disco Rainbow' luster dust when they came out of the oven. Then I piped around the edges with white chocolate (I thought the chocolate would travel better in the mail than frosting) and finally I dipped the top 'rim' in pink sanding sugar.
The stems were pretty thin and I was concerned they would all get broken to bits in shipping. To help them I 'glued' each cookie to a piece of cute printed card stock with white chocolate. (I didn't test this out before I did it and I really hope there weren't bits of paper stuck to the back of the cookies.) It was so hot in the kitchen I had to turn on the air conditioner in the kitchen to get the chocolate to set.
Once the chocolate set I sealed each cookie in a cello bag.
And my favorite part was the label on the back that sealed the bag. I searched the Internet for a suitable martini recipe and found....
Birthday Partini
1 1/2 oz vanilla vodka
1 oz half and half
1/2 oz almond liqueur
Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously. Stain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Optional garnished: Birthday candles, good friends, and bad dancing.
No matter how the cookies taste they looked really cute.
And for Gordy, a box of bow tie sugar cookies.
I found the cookie cutter in Atlanta and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make cookies for Gordy. His cookies were wrapped in a cello bag with a pre-printed birthday sticker on the back. I considered a recipe for a 'Black Tie Martini' but then went with the sticker.
So happy birthday to my friends - enjoy your treats!
