This year, my oldest decided to give up dance and gymnastics to try softball. We have had a fun year so far. Here's a shot of her hitting her first ever single at her first ever game during her first ever at bat.
Every game, a different parent is responsible for the team snacks. Most moms bring Capri Suns or juice boxes accompanied by some sort of bagged chip or cookie. I wanted to shoot for something a little bit more personal. I originally intended to make baseball cupcakes. They seemed easy enough...white icing and pipe on some red lines. Laney, however, had a completely different plan. She wanted baseball cookies. The problem....I had no idea how in the world I was going to make baseball cookies. I did some internet research and flipped through a few cookbooks before finally deciding I was up for the challenge. You ready to make your own? Here we go.
Tools and supplies needed for entire project:
Mixing bowls
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Baking Sheets
Oven (oven mitts are helpful too)
Cooling racks
3 ziploc baggies
a toothpick
Start with your favorite sugar cookie recipe for cut cookies, not drop cookies. I am going to be honest here and admit that I used a Betty Crocker mix to save time. Prepare the dough and roll it out on a floured surface to around 1/4" thickness. Using a round cookie cutter, cut the desired size cookies. I used my small biscuit cutter. Transfer dough rounds onto a cookie sheet and bake according to mix or recipe directions. Let cool on a rack until completely cooled.
For the icing, here is what you will need (per batch):
1 c. confectioner's sugar
1 Tbsp. light karo syrup
1 Tbsp. milk (plus a little extra for flood batch)
One drop of lemon juice
Red food coloring (only for laces batch)
Mix up your first batch of white icing using 1c. confectioner's sugar, 1 Tbsp karo syrup, and 1 Tbsp milk and one drop of lemon juice. The acidity in the lemon juice cuts the sweetness by just a teeny bit and adds depth to the flavor of the icing. You will not taste lemon when you eat them. You may need to add about a 1/2 Tbsp more milk if the mixture is too thick. Transfer this mixture into a ziploc baggie and snip off the very tip of the bottom corner so that you can use it like a fancy piping bag. Trace around the outside edge of the top of your cookie, making sure to close the circle all the way. Somehow, I didn't end up with a photo of this step.
While that is drying, mix up a second batch of icing. This time, you will need to add around a tablespoon and a half of milk to the original recipe in order to get the consistency needed. You want it to flow freely without being really runny either. Good rule of thumb is that if you scrape a spoon across the bottom of the mixing bowl, you want the line to fill in within five seconds. Transfer this batch of icing into a new ziploc baggie, snipping the corner as we did before. This time, you can cut a little more of the corner off since this step requires less precision. Pour a generous amount of this icing inside of the ring you drew onto each cookie. After the first one or two, you will get a feel for how much it will take to fill the circle up without going overboard. Once you have poured the icing in, use a tootpick to spread the icing to the edges of your outline and pop any air bubbles that may be present. I did about 8 of these at a time until I finished. The icing starts hardening fairly quickly, so I don't recommend doing too many more than that before smoothing with a toothpick.
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This step will take a little longer to dry, so I worked on the rest of the snack while I was waiting. I'll tell you about that when we finish working on our cookies.
When the icing has set up from your last step, go ahead and mix up a third and final batch of icing. To the original recipe, you will not add additional milk. You will add red food coloring. (I recommend a gel coloring as opposed to a liquid due to the changes in consistency it will make to your icing. You will see that my icing spread a little more than I would have liked because I used liquid coloring.) Once again, transfer the icing into a plastic bag and snip the corner. This time, you will want to snip only a tiny bit so that you have a finer stream of icing coming out. Carefully draw your lace lines onto each cookie. Moving quickly and confidently works best for this.
I left my cookies just like this, but if you wanted, you could add the detailed lace lines. I just felt like it was a little too much. Had I used gel coloring rather than liquid, I possibly would have like the result better.
As you can see, some of my cookies have little drip drips or crooked lines. Never let perfection ruin a good project.
I made enough of these that each player had three cookies. Once the cookies had completely dried (just under an hour) I stack them three high in red and white cupcake liners for easy transport. In addition to the cookies, I also gave each child a Capri Sun and a baggie of pretzel stick "bats" with a "great game" note attached.
While my flooding step was setting up, I made and printed the little business card sized notes that said "great game," filled snack sized bags with pretzel sticks, and stapled the notes to the baggies.
I was very pleased with how everything turned out, and the other parents all had a fit over how cute it all was. I hope your snack day is as much of a success as mine was.
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