Mother's Day 2013

 I have never been...and probably never will be one of those bloggers who gets my holiday cookies blogged about "before" or "during" the season.

Between working 55+ hours a week, AND baking on the side...I'm lucky to get the blogging done at all.  Soooo...I'm going to use the excuse that I don't post "on time" because I don't want the recipients to see their creations online before they get them in person...yeah, that works!  Hehe!  These are some Mother's Day cookies that I did and gave to my mom for Mother's Day.

I used sanding sugar on the edges of most of them.  I absolutely LOVE the crunch and sweetness that sanding sugar adds to sugar cookies!  It also gives it that extra little "sparkle", I think.

 I have finally found the method/medium/means that I am sticking with.

I now flood all of my cookies with "glaze".  I like the taste of glaze MUCH better than royal icing.  I've had royal icing from many different bakers, I've tried a variety of recipes on my own...and I just don't care for the taste of it.  By flooding the cookies with glaze, I get the yummy taste that it brings, PLUS I like the smoothness of glaze.  I never end up with air bubbles, cracking, separating, or any of the other issues that royal icing can bring on any given day.  Glaze also brings a nice sheen to it when dry.  Royal icing always dries so matte and dull.  Weather doesn't seem to play into glaze as much as it does with royal icing either.  We all know how humidity just KILLS royal icing!

I just LOVE these "petals" above.  They are actually paisley fondant cutters, but I thought with the floral theme I was working on, I'd call them petals!

I mentioned that I'm now flooding with glaze...HOWEVER...I'm not giving up royal icing all together.  Glaze is VERY difficult to work with for the intricate piping details on many cookies.  It just doesn't hold shape like a stiff royal does.  So I'm still using royal for all of my intricate details.  This way we get the yummy taste of glaze and the great details with royal.

These squares I did with some fondant cutters I purchased a while back as well.

Fondant cutters make excellent cookie cutters as well!

 The whole collection.

I added some springtime flowers to the Mother's Day mix as well.

I LOVE doing flowers.

 I have to say, flowers are one of my favorite cookies to decorate.

The whole collection!

I hope all you moms had a very Happy Mother's Day and those who aren't mothers, I hope you were able to spend time with the special ladies in your life!