Lily Pad Cookies

A few years ago when my oldest was in preschool and studying Claude Monet I thought it would be fun to end the session with some fun lily pad cookies. To make it fun for the kids, because cookies aren't fun enough, I added some plastic frogs. The cookies were adorable and I was asked to make these cookies for each child of mine in the preschool class. This year, I took it another level and added lilies to the actual pads. I was quite happy with how they turned out. And not to disappoint the children, the frogs were added as well. So many of you commented on these cookies and asked for the recipe. They are really quite easy to make and can be made in stages.




Ingredients:

1 package of sugar cookie mix -- butter and egg as the recipe calls for
1 can of frosting
Green food coloring
Decorator sugars, yellow and pink
Plastic frogs -- as many as you need
1 package of fondant -- you won't use the whole thing so seal it tightly so that it can be used again!

I used one package of Betty Crocker cookie mix and I love this mix. It's the only packaged cookie product out there that comes thisclose to home made taste! I followed the directions on the package and then rolled the dough into a log and refrigerated over night.

The following morning I sliced the dough into fairly thin slices and placed them on to a cookie sheet. I baked them about 10 minutes at 350 and as soon as they came out of the oven and were still soft and warm I used my finger to indent the cookie to give it that lily pad look. I let the cookies cool and harden,

While the cookies are cooling you'll make the flowers. I cut off pieces of fondant and rolled them out flat, then used a small flower cookie cutter to cut out my flowers. Some of the flowers remained white, some were pink and some were yellow. To color the flowers I used colored sugars. In order to get the sugar to adhere to the fondant I dipped a pastry brush lightly in water and to get the fondant damp. I then pressed the flower in to the sugar and the sugar stuck beautifully. I set the flowers aside. To make the petals curl up I gently pressed my finger into the middle of the cookie and worked the petals ever so gently.

When the cookies had cooled I frosted them. I used a canned frosting (vanilla) and added some green food coloring to it. I didn't use that much of the frosting as the cookies required just one thin layer. When all the cookies were frosted I took a flower which I placed strategically on the cookie. Lastly the frogs were added. I kept the cookies aside and let the frosting harden overnight.

F is for Fire Truck Cookie

Alexander went on his first class field trip today. The Pre-K 3 class went to a fire station near the school. The kids had a blast learning all about the fire men and what they do. They got to sit in the front of the fire engine (if they wanted to do so) and got to hold the hose as it sprayed water! When the adventure at the fire house was over the kids all made their way to the play ground across the street where they all prepared their snacks... fire engine cookies of course!

Each child got one and a half graham crackers, a plastic knife, 4 mini Oreos, a few mini pretzel sticks, 1 string of red licorice and one Dot candy.

First they "painted" their fire trucks red by spreading frosting on the larger graham cracker, then over the smaller graham square. The smaller square was placed over the longer rectangle piece. The kids then added their wheels (Oreos), ladders (pretzels), hose (licorice) and siren (Dot candy)

By prepackaging the ingredients into individual Ziploc bags the children had everything they needed at their fingertips. This alleviated any potential chaos. The children needed only slight guidance.

For mothers of children who love anything fire engine-related this is a wonderful craft. I would think this would go over well on a play date after reading any of the many wonderful fire engine books out there!