Mommy & Daughter Baking Day

Before I get to today's events, let me give a small back-story. Evelyn and I really love baking and cooking together. My husband thinks it's amazing that I have the patience to give up some control over to a four year old and also allow her to try things that will either slow my progress or might not look quite as "perfect" as what I would attempt on my own. However, it is a good practice for me to have her work with me, mostly because I NEED a reason to slow down and enjoy the process and accept that it doesn't have to look perfect when we're done. Mommy could use a couple of notches knocked off the perfection meter, if you know what I mean...

Anyway, Evelyn was baking a cake with my Mom last weekend. It was a new recipe, and Mom decided to tweak the recipe as they went along. (Yes, I realize this is exactly the same thing I do. I learned from the best. We are usually pretty spot-on in our tweaks, I'll have you know.) But this one cake tweak didn't turn out exactly as planned. The cake layers didn't get quite as think as Mom had hoped, and she lamented that her cakes didn't rise while Evelyn was still nearby. Quick as you please, Evelyn looked right at her and asked, "Grandma, did you remember to put the baking soda and baking powder in the cake? You KNOW you have to put baking soda and baking powder in the cake so it will rise. Did you forget it?"

Yes, my sweet little baker's apprentice is four and a half years old. And yes, she knows that baking powder and baking soda are what go in cakes to make them rise. All this time, I've never really thought about how much she is learning when she bakes with me. I definitely underestimated how much she is listening and absorbing, despite her young age.

Okay, so on to today's fun. I found a new sugar cookie recipe while surfing blogs the other day. I mixed up the dough a couple of nights ago, but due to a horrendous migraine that lasted three days, I hadn't baked the cookies yet. When Gunnar went down for his nap this afternoon, I got the dough out of the fridge, ironed my rolling mat, and started baking. Evelyn waited as patiently as possible for her turn at the dough scraps, and here are the pictures of her rolling out her own dough.

So cute. This girl has mad cookie dough rolling skills!

Oh, and you wanna see the finished product? Oh my, they really are good. My husband needs to come home fast. Otherwise, I'm going to sit down in front of the table with the gallon jug of milk, and eat myself into oblivion. Folks, I have a new go-to sugar cookie recipe.

Aren't they pretty? I had never used this particular technique for frosting cookies, but it turned out quite well. The first step is to pipe a thicker version of the icing around the edge of each cookie. Then, you thin the icing with more milk and drizzle the icing to fill in the top of the cookie. Add sprinkles, just for an extra cute touch.

And they made plenty.

Did I say that they make plenty? Let me rephrase...

That's a whole lotta cookies!

They really are good. Nice, chewy, soft texture... wonderful flavor... sweet frosting with a touch of lemon juice... sooooo good.