Birthday Treats for School

My daughter is turning 11 tomorrow, gulp! Ugh, it's hard for me to say that! I asked her what she wanted me to make for her to take to school for birthday treats, and at first, her pre-teen response was, "Mom, you always make cupcakes or cookies, why can't I just take bags of candy?!"

My quick 'Suzy Homemaker' response, "Everyone probably has tons of Halloween candy leftover, so can I make something?"

Pre-teen: "Ok fine, make some cookies!"

So, tonight, I have been baking cookies...and thought I'd try out some rolled buttercream icing as well. I've been wanting to try that out for a long time now, because I can't stand the taste of fondant, and making my own marshmallow fondant is too messy. (Plus, I didn't want to be up all night knifing frosting on 28 cookies)

I wanted to do something fun, so I started with round cookiesAnd then I rolled out the rolled buttercream real thin.

Using the same cookie cutter I used for the cookies, I cut circles out of the icing, so that they would fit perfectly on top of the cookies. (Since the cookies tend to spread a little wider in the oven)

Now, the trick to getting the rolled buttercream to stick, is to lay it on top of the cookies just as you pull it out of the oven, so that the heat causes it to soften and stick to the cookie!

Once all the round cookies were done, I started on the "M" cookies. I laid them right on top of the frosted round cookies as soon as they came out of the oven so that the warm cookie would stick to the icing below it! Then, same as above, quickly laid the green buttercream on top of the warm "M" cookies.

At this point, my daughter came out to the kitchen to inspect. I think she was pretty impressed and was happy with my creations. She told me how I needed to decorate them before she went to bed, so I hope she likes them!

You'll have to forgive the poor lighting. Like most baking I do, it's done late at night when the kiddos are in bed.

Now, once the icing stiffins, I can bag them up and send them with her to school in the morning!

ROLLED BUTTERCREAM ICING

MIX
(using an elec. mixer w/ paddle attachment):
1 cup solid crisco
1 cup corn syrup

ADD:
1 tsp. clear vanilla flavoring
1/2 tsp. butter flavoring
1/2 tsp. fine grain salt

SLOWLY ADD:
7-8 cups powdered sugar
over 30 seconds, and then mix another 30 seconds once all the powdered sugar has been added.

Allow to sit for atleast 30 minutes before using. Use at room temperature.

Can be kept in fridge for a few weeks.
Can be frozen for months.