New Year’s Clock Cookies

I hope that 2011 was a great year for everyone and that you are full of excitement and high hopes for 2012!

I’m back from my Christmas vacation in Hawaii and I am pooped!
(To see some of my pictures from my vacation, click here.)

Why is it that you need a vacation after the vacation?? Coming back home to laundry, putting away all of your goodies and getting over jet-lag is bad enough, but I also added Christmas to the mix. We did Christmas presents on the 25th, the 26th and 27th! Way too much excitement!

So, with that in mind, I really, really did not have time to make cookies from scratch or come up with an original idea. I’ve seen Midnight Clock cookies all over the internet. But, I have been running on empty… so I cheated… Sue me!

I picked up a snack size bag of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookies and followed the instructions. (I only had 1 egg in the house, so it’s a good thing this only required butter and water.)
I cut them out with  my cookie/biscuit cutters and placed them on my NEW Silplat cookie sheet liner.
I also stuck a few sicks on some for Cookie Pops at my daughter’s request.
I baked and cooled them according to directions and then it came time to decorate!

I whipped up a modified version Royal Icing because I didn’t need TONS of icing…
1 cup powered sugar
1 teaspoon Meringue Power
1 teaspoon Almond Extract
3 -5 teaspoons of water (you want it thick, yet still gooey)

I am NOT a decorated cookie expert. I’ve read the blogs and tried their advice, but I just don’t have a great steady hand… I have to keep my decorations basic!
So, I did the outline and then came back to flood the face of the cookie. I added my decorations while the icing was still wet and then left them overnight to dry.
Seems like my Royal Icing is just a jester in the court because it did not harden completely.
I drew on the clock hands with my edible markers, but I did punch through a few times. Oops!

They tasted GREAT and my family loved them and that is all that matters 🙂