Okay, so, I wanted to make some baseball cookies the other day. Sounds simple enough, right? I mean, how hard could it be to bake some cookies and decorate them like baseballs? Well, let me tell you, it was a bit of an adventure.
First things first, I needed to get my ingredients together. I decided to go with a classic vanilla sugar cookie dough. I grabbed some butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Nothing too crazy there. I creamed together the butter and sugar until it was all light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time. After that, I mixed in the vanilla, and slowly added the dry ingredients until it all came together into a nice dough.
Now, here’s where I started to feel a little fancy. I rolled out the dough and used a circular cookie cutter to make the baseball shapes. I mean, you could just make regular round cookies, but where’s the fun in that? I placed the cut-out cookies on a baking sheet and popped them in the oven. While the cookies baked, I looked online and saw people rolling their dough balls in sugar before baking, so I may do that next time. I also saw someone use fondant to decorate, but I did not want to be bothered, so I went the royal icing route.
While the cookies were baking, I whipped up some royal icing. I’ve never really been good with icing. I see people make such intricate designs, but I could never really get it right. I followed some instructions I found online. I did a simple mix of powdered sugar, meringue powder, and water. I divided the icing into two bowls, leaving one white and adding red food coloring to the other.
- Flour
- Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Baking powder
- Salt
Once the cookies were cooled, it was time to decorate. I carefully outlined each cookie with white icing to create the base of the baseball. Then, with my shaky hands, I attempted to draw the red stitching lines. Let’s just say, some of them looked more like abstract art than baseball stitches, but hey, I tried. The icing was also a little runny, so that made things challenging. I may need to adjust the ratios of ingredients in the future.
After letting the icing set, the cookies were finally done! They weren’t perfect, but they were definitely recognizable as baseballs. And you know what? They tasted pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.
Lessons Learned
Next time, I might try a different cookie recipe. Maybe something a little less crumbly, so the edges hold their shape better when I decorate them. And I definitely need to practice my icing skills. Maybe I’ll watch some videos or take a class. Or maybe I’ll just embrace the messy look and call it “rustic.” Either way, it was a fun little baking project, and I ended up with some tasty treats to share. I may also make the icing thicker next time.
