Have your cake and eat cookies too.

First things first: I did NOT make this cake. The credit goes to Briana's (and Michaela's) mom. She made this cake for Michaela's baby shower. Secondly: This cake is even cooler because it matches the quilt, accessories and decorations that said mom made for the baby's room. Thirdly: A really fun, 3D way to decorate a cake. The cookies on the sticks were not placed into the cake until it arrived at the shower location. Frosting was put around some of the sticks to help stabilize them.

Traveling Dessert Buffet

A fun selection of treats that can also travel the distance to the party (from top left, clockwise): Peanut Butter Temptations, Brownie Bites, Cream Cheese Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, Cranberry Pecan Cookies, and M&M Cookies. The cookies are the same basic dough as the cookie bars, I just divided it and put M&Ms in one half and cranberries and pecans in the other half.

For traveling, I put everything in plastic containers. The cookies and cookie bars packed the easiest. I used waxed paper between layers of Brownie Bites and the PB Temptations. Waxed paper on top of the Cream Cheese Brownies pulled off the top of the cream cheese, so I only did single layers in shallow containers. Ideally, I would I have just left these guys in the pan and covered it, but I had already cut them up when I realized I couldn't stack them.

Cookie Flower Bouquet

I used my normal sugar cookie recipe for this. I made sure not to roll the dough out too thin. After I cut out the shape with a cookie cutter, I placed it on a cookie sheet and stuck a stem in. For the stem you could use the white candy making sticks, but I happened to have the long bamboo skewers on hand so I used those. Then I baked the cookies as normal until done. After cooling, I frosted with a powdered sugar frosting. I learned that the frosting should be just barely runny enough that you can move it to frost, and if you are doing multiple colors on a cookie, you really need to let the first one dry so you don't mess it up with the second color.

When the frosting was dry I wrapped each cookie in plastic wrap and used a green ribbon to secure it like leaves. I put styrofoam in a pail and topped it with paper grass so I could stick my cookie flower stems in. The "birds" are peeps, also wrapped in plastic so they don't dry out.

This is definitely one of those things that would hopefully turn out better the second time around. The frosting didn't go as well as I hoped because it was too runny, and then I should have let it dry longer before standing it up in the bucket. A container that was rectangular would make a nice planter box so you could spread the flowers out and could even get some gummie bugs/worms for decorating the "grass".

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This has to be the easiest cookie recipe ever! It is not quite as good as making it entirely from scratch but when the dough is ready in less than 5 minutes who can complain.
Combine:
1 Spice cake mix
15 oz Pumpkin
Chocolate Chips
Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.
(yes, it really doesn't need eggs)

No-Frost Valentines

They are very pretty and easier to put into bags to give as valentines, but I'm not sure they are tastier than their frosted friends. After baking the cookies, I melted some chocolate and dipped the cookies half way in. Then I put the dipped cookies on waxed paper and applied sprinkles. Might be pretty cool if you melted white chocolate and dipped the other side too.

Altitude Adjustments

Just some comments on altitude adjustments. While I don't usually follow the recommendations a box of brownies or a cake mix, I have found that adding up to a fourth of a cup of flour to cookie dough does make your cookies not quite so flat. I actually prefer the texture of them with the extra flour.

Ultimate Pie Dough "Cookies"

My husband likes a little pie with his pie crust, so I usually make enough pie dough for two pies but only use about 3/4 of it to make a single crust. The remaining pie dough can be used for the following Ultimate Pie Dough "Cookies":

Roll out dough to normal pie thickness. Use a really big soup mug or other object to cut out big circles. Place a circle of dough in each space of a cupcake pan until you run out of dough. Put a tiny bit of butter (approx. 1/6 of a tablespoon), about 1 teaspons of brown sugar, and as much cinnamon as you like (a good sprinkle) in the center of each circle.

Then take that leftover-leftover pie dough, you know, the stuff that wouldn't roll out to make another circle, and smash it in the bottom of one of the cupcake spots. Sprinkle with cinnamon and white sugar for a nice little biscuit. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown at about 375. Cool and enjoy or put in an airtight container to snack on later.

I've only done this once so there's lots of room for improvement on the specifics. You could probably put a little jam in each one instead butter and make some sort of mini tart.