Cookies ready to be delivered
This summer, she sent email about a program she designed with several other friends called Drop In & Decorate. The premise is simple – get a few friends together, decorate some cookies, then donate those cookies to a worthwhile organization in your neighborhood. I was so smitten with this idea that I vowed to make it happen this holiday season, with my own group of friends, on December 13th, as part of an annual cookie exchange party.
As my friends arrived, I put them to work – Erica and Marsha on making the frosting, Julie and Lisa washing tips, Pat and Marie catching up. Fortunately, Diddams was having a sale on Wilton items, so I had enough frosting tips for 9 pastry bags (kitchen gadgets!), more than enough for everyone. I had made the cookies last weekend, using the large, comfortable cookie cutters from Wilton (more kitchen gadgets!), and froze them until the party. I also had on hand loads of sprinkles and decorations.
The coloring of the frosting was humorous – we had a hard time getting strong, vibrant holiday colors. I remarked that perhaps we should be doing this around Easter, when pastel colors were acceptable. For the two batches of cookies, we made two batches of frosting, colored about 1/2 and left the other half white. We used disposable pastry bags with metal tips and plastic couplers, all from the Wilton cake decorating line.
Once all the frosting was ready, we got down to business. For the next 45 minutes, we decorated 90 cookies with frosting, decorations and love. Here are some of my favorite pictures:
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Later that evening, I packaged the cookies into individual bags (thank you Lydia!) and tied a ribbon around the top. The next morning, my kids helped me deliver the cookies to the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford.
Are you interested in doing something similar this holiday season? Check out the Drop In & Decorate blog for detailed instructions, including a downloadable plan. When we delivered the cookies, we all agreed that we had a warm spot in our heart – hope you can enjoy that same feeling this holiday season!
2 Comments
Beautiful cookies! Special thanks to all who came to decorate, and to you for organizing such a wonderful Drop In & Decorate event.
Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)s last blog post..Gifts for food lovers: Gifts of giving (Recipe: fried sweet potatoes)
Gudrun, thanks for organizing this great party. It had the makings of a perfect holiday event: friends, conversation, something fun to do with your hands, and the sense, when you walked away, of doing good.
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