The Best Cut-Out Cookie Recipe

prep: 20 minutes, plus 30 minutes resting
bake: 8 to 10 minutes

makes about 24 cookies (depending on the size of your cookie cutter!)

you’ll need…

2½ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup superfine sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

1 package Wilton Royal Icing mix

1 package Wilton Candy Eyeballs

1 Wilton Icing Color (I used black)

let’s get to it…

Mix the flour, sugar and salt at low speed in a stand-up mixer. Add the butter a piece at a time until the dough looks crumbly. Add the vanilla and cream cheese and mix until the dough forms large clumps.

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead by hand once or twice. Cut the dough in half. Form two 4-inch disks. Wrap each disk tightly in plastic and let rest in the refrigerator for 30-minutes.

Place oven rack in the center and heat oven to 375°F. Place 1-dough disk between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll out to ⅛-inch thickness. Place on a baking sheet.  Cut into desired shapes about 1-inch apart. Remove excess dough from around cutout cookies and set aside.

Bake for 5 minutes; rotate pan and bake 3 to 5 minutes longer or until light golden brown. Repeat with second dough disk. Leftover scraps can be mashed together and rolled out to make more cookies. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

decorating the cookies…

Prepare the Wilton Royal Icing mix according to package directions. Decorate with Eyeballs and Icing color, or with whatever candy you have on hand!

Save-A-Step Gingerbread Skeletons 

prep: 15 minutes (and 2 hours in the refrigerator resting)
cook: 10 to 12 minutes
makes: 12 6-inch Gingerbread Skeletons

you’ll need…
1 package Spice Cake Mix
1¼ cups all purpose flour (plus a little extra for rolling out the dough)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup dark molasses
3 teaspoons dried ground ginger
1 16 ounce can Ready-to-Serve White Frosting
Candy, cereal and other sweets for decorating

let’s get to it…
Heat oven to 375°F.
Blend cake mix, flour, eggs, oil, molasses and ginger in a large mixing bowl. Remove dough from bowl, divide in half and place in two Ziploc® Brand Storage Bags Gallon size or wrap separately in Saran™ Premium Wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.
Lightly flour a work surface and place half of the dough in the center. Cover with parchment paper or waxed paper and roll dough to ¼-inch thickness. Cut with gingerbread man cookie cutters. Place 1-inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then remove from pan and cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before decorating.
Spread frosting on each of the cookies and decorate with candy.

Cooking Know How:

• Evenly divide frosting into four separate Ziploc® Brand Freezer Storage Bags and add a few drops of orange, black or purple food coloring to each bag. Reserve one bag for white frosting. Knead the sealed bags to mix the colors completely. Push the frosting into the corner of the bag and snip off a corner and squeeze into a bowl. Use the Ziploc® Brand Freezer Storage Bag as a decorating bag by snipping off a tiny corner: very small for dots, and a little bigger for writing and outlining.

• Use cut up red and black licorice and marshmallows to make “bones” and Red Hots cinnamon candy or frosted cereal for “eyes.”

Easy Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

prep: 10 minutes

makes enough frosting for two 9-inch layers

you’ll need…
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (but not melted!)
1 lb. confectioners’ sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon milk
pinch of salt

let’s get to it…

Beat the butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, milk and salt with a stand mixer on low speed for 1-minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl.
Beat on medium-high speed for 30-seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Beat another 30-seconds and scrape the sides of the bowl.
Beat another 30-seconds until fluffy and creamy. Don’t overbeat of it will be too soft! If this happens, add a little more confectioners’ sugar until fluffy and creamy.

Caramel Cake
prep: 30 minutes
cook: 20-25 minutes

for the cake you’ll need…
2 cups cake flour, sifted (cake flour is supposed to be sifted already, but sift it again anyway)
1/4 teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

for the icing you’ll need…
½ cup butter
2 1/4 cups light brown sugar (about a pound)
1/2  teaspoon salt
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla

let’s make the cake…
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Make sure the middle rack is in place.
Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans. (In the image you see 3 layers. I used a jelly roll pan to bake the cake and then cut out three circles for three layers after it was baked.)
Sift the flour and salt together and set aside. I do this on a paper plate so that I can bend it when adding it to the mixture later.
Cream the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer on medium low speed.
Add the eggs, one at a time, and then add the vanilla. Continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Turn the electric mixer up to medium and alternate adding the sifted flour and salt and the buttermilk to the butter mixture.
Dissolve the baking soda in the vinegar and add to the mixture.
Pour equal amounts of the batter into the pans, using a rubber spatula to remove all of the batter from the bowl and to evenly distribute the batter in the pans.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched in the middle.
Cool cake in the pans for 10 minutes; flip onto a wire rack and cool at least 1 hour.

let’s make the icing while the cake bakes….
Melt the butter on medium low heat in a heavy saucepan.
Whisk in the brown sugar and salt.
Add the evaporated milk and continuing stirring until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage (about 235°F).
Remove from heat and let cool 15 minutes.
Stir in baking powder and vanilla for 10 minutes, or until at a spreadable consistency. (Remember this is an icing so you won’t slather it on like you would a frosting).
Cool completely before icing the cake.

cooking know how…
Icing and frosting are different. Icing is usually sugar based and is thinner, almost like a glaze. Frosting is thicker and tends to be cream or butter based.