Decorating cookies is one of my go to activities! Mostly because it is so easy. It can also be adapted in many different ways. Not to mention, who doesn’t love cookies?!
There are three different options you can choose from depending on how much time you want to invest.
Easiest/Quickest – This is really the cheaters way. It’s one I go to a lot because even though it takes almost no effort on my part, the kids love it! Use the store bought rolls of cookie dough. I use this option for quick holiday activities because the stores will have colors and shapes in the dough that make it festive. Shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day, hearts for Valentines Day, pumpkins at Halloween, etc. Slice, bake, and then decorate. I always make sure to have frosting tubes of various colors on hand as well as lots of sprinkles. Or you can opt for a can of frosting. The other night we even had candy eyes.
Highest Involvement – You can make the dough from scratch with the kids. We do this on special nights or at Christmas time with cut out cookies. Have the kids help measure and dump the ingredients in. Running the mixer is the most fun. Now that we have a Kitchen Aid mixer they always fight over the 1 beater. I let them set the oven and the timer. As long as we don’t make a ton of cookies their interest level holds long enough for cookies to cool and be decorated. Or skip the decorations and go right for the cookies.
Lower Involvement – I have times when it’s just faster (or easier) if I’m the only one in the kitchen mixing the cookies. In these instances I will bake the cookies ahead of time then just let the kids decorate.
A little secret…sometimes I hide some of the cookies we bake so they don’t get decorated. Mostly because I’m not a huge fan of the frosting. Sometimes because I don’t want the germs the kids are spreading. When they have the sniffles, they decorate and eat their own cookies. We even store them in their own tupperware container. Then in those instances, I can still have the germ free version.
Put on your chef hat and get to baking! Save some for me. Yum!
