So maybe I’ll make something this week for New Year’s. Maybe. What are you doing on the 31st? Anything wild and crazy? Or are you baking anything special? Because I need some ideas…

 These almost-midnight clock cookie pops were one of the first posts I ever wrote on this blog four years ago. Find the how-tos HERE.

 I even made a video how-to for these crazy easy sparkly marshmallow party pops. Don’t laugh.

Find the video HERE and find the written how-tos HERE.

And here’s an easier, bite-size version of the almost midnight cookies, except that I totally messed up the time. Yeah, that says 11:00. (Shake your head at me now.) Find those how-tos HERE.Tweet

Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

A super speedy quick post this morning, folks, as I’m racing against the kid-wake-up-clock. I’m not usually one who puts much stock in New Year’s, but tonight we’re celebrating in perfect style… walking across the street to our neighbor’s house for a yummy Danish New Year’s feast wherein the parents will all sit and drink wine and eat while we totally ignore the crazy kids running around totally ignoring us.

I’m bringing these mini (ie. perfect for already sugar-dosed kids) cookie bites, a smaller, quicker variation of my almost midnight clock cookie pops from way back when.

To make these, I just cut out 1 1/4-inch circles from my cookie dough, tint royal icing with fun colors and thinned to an almost-flooding consistency (so I only used one decorating bag to outline and fill), let dry very well (this takes several hours, if you’re going to make these for tonight, start NOW!! and do this all first, then go out and find the pens), and use a black FooDoodler pen to draw the clock faces.

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

As if my inexperience with photography wasn’t enough, I’ve decided to take on video. “Take on video” by propping my camera on a box and pressing the video button. Then fiddling with the free software on my computer. So forgive the quality (or rather, lack thereof). Pretend I’m speaking louder in that second part.

I started with something super-easy: My sparkly marshmallow pops dressed up for New Year’s with some curling ribbon. If I improve my video skills I’ll try something a little more tricky.

The videos will all demonstrate techniques covered in my new book, Sugarlicious. Which by the way, you can preorder HERE. Just in case you haven’t preordered it yet. And the best part? I’m going to attempt to keep them under 2 minutes. Why? Because I know what it’s like to be swamped and have little patience for long videos. So here’s your first 1 minute and 42 seconds (I don’t know why the screen is black, but it should work, if not, you can watch HERE at YouTube):

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

By request, some more New Year’s decorated cookies. I have a champagne glass cookie cutter, but it’s huge. And I like the more eatable, shareable smaller versions. These cookies are only about two by three inches. And as New Year’s is just hours away, hopefully these will save you last minute cookie cutter shopping. All you need is a rectangle and a circle. And if you don’t have a rectangle cutter, then you can easily cut one with a knife or dough scraper. I also threw in some swirly, sparkly circles (see here for how-tos).

 

you will need:*
dough 
frosting

white sprinkles

*Find the bags, couplers, tips, sprinkles and cutters in the craft store. For coloring, I use Americolor soft gel pastes (Super Black, Egg Yellow, Bright White, Sky Blue, Chocolate Brown). For tips on finding supplies click HERE.

 

step one: bake your cookies
Prepare dough according to recipe, chill it, cut out shapes (hourglasses are the rectangles, to cut the glasses use the circle to cut out semicircles from the sides, then round the edges with your fingers), bake and let cool.

step two: prepare your frosting
Prepare frosting according to recipe. Make five colors: black, brown, light yellow, white and light blue. Prepare four frosting bags with couplers and tips. Fill with each color except the light blue. Reserve the light blue in a covered container. Tie the bags closed tightly with rubber bands.

step three: decorate your hourglass
1. Outline design with black using a size three tip and let set well. An hour if you have the time.
2. Working with one cookie at a time, pipe the sand with white using a size 3 tip and immediately coat with sprinkles. Turn over to remove excess.
3. Fill the frame with brown using a size four tip.
4. Thin the reserved light blue frosting with drops of water until the consistency of thick glue. Put in an empty frosting bag, tie closed with a rubber band. Snip 1/8 inch from the tip of the bag. Pipe the thinned frosting around the outline and  loosely pipe to fill the rest of the hourglass. Encourage the frosting to the edges with a toothpick as needed.
5. Let the blue set a couple hours, switch the tip on the white to size two and pipe highlights. Let dry overnight.

step four: decorate your champagne glass
1. Outline design with black using a size three tip and let set well, an hour if you have the time.
2. Working with one cookie at a time, pipe to fill the champagne glass with light yellow using a size four tip. Immediately coat with sprinkles. Turn over to remove excess.
3. Use the thinned blue frosting to fill the rest of the glass.
4. Let the blue set a couple hours, pipe highlights with white two tip, and switch the tip on the light yellow to size two and pipe bubbles. Let dry overnight.

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

Tweet

Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!