Earth Day Sugar Cookies

What did you do for Earth Day yesterday?

I took the Fujilings to the park for the morning. A friend of mine has started a park group where we meet up at a different park every week (our city has a TON of parks) to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air and get our kids out of the house to play with each other.
It was a beautiful day--the perfect Earth Day! Earlier that morning I made sugar cookies to take and share.
In honor of Earth day I made flower and bumble bee cookies.
The bumble bees are also appropriate in light of the current bee problem, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which has killed billions of bees over the past couple of years. This sugar cookie recipe is my all-time favorite and is the recipe that my mom has been using since she got married. I made the flowers small and filled them with homemade raspberry jam and lemon curd (better for kids--smaller and not slathered in a sugary frosting). I decorated the bees with a bit of yellow royal icing.
To make the flowers, make a batch of dough, then use a small flower shaped cookie cutter to cut out flowers (you will need 2 flowers for each cookie). Using a small circle shaped cookie cutter, cut out the center of half of the flowers (I used the smallest cutter of this set).
Then bake the cookies as directed by the recipe.
When the cookies have cooled, spread a small amount of lemon curd or jam on the bottom of the cookies without the middle missing and then press a cookie with a hole in it on top so that the curd or jam comes up a bit through the hole, making a colored center.


Fuji Nana's Sugar Cookies
Makes 2 dozen cookies (or about double that if making them small like these cookies)

2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg
4 tsp. milk
2 cups sifted flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Thoroughly cream together shortening, sugar, and vanilla.

3. Add egg; beat till light and fluffy. Stir in milk.

4. Stir together dry ingredients; blend into creamed mixture.

5. Divide dough in half. Chill 1 hour. Pull out one half to work with (continue chilling other half until ready to use).

6. On a lightly floured surface, roll to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cutters. Bake on greased cookie sheet about 6 to 8 minutes. Cool slightly ; remove from pan.


* Don't forget! You have until Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 10:00 PM PST to enter the Furochic giveaway! (Go here for instructions on how to enter).