Decorated Cookies for End-Of-The-Year Teacher Gifts

There's been a lack of posting on my part, and I promise there's a good reason…we're about to move! We just finished an extensive renovation on our new home, and while I feel so grateful and lucky to have the opportunity to create a beautiful home for my family, it has been a marathon of decision-making. I've always known that my husband and I have a strong relationship, and living through this renovation has proved it! And just to add a bit more to our already full plate, we're also about to leave for a short vacation. Why did we plan on finishing our renovation, moving and going out of town in the same few weeks? It seemed like a doable idea at the time, but now I'm not so sure…

Plus it's the end of the school year, and those of you with children know that there's a lot that has to be taken care of before summer vacation can begin. This end-of-the school year is even more meaningful for us because my oldest daughter graduated from pre-school. She's off to kindergarten, and while I'm excited, I have to admit that she's growing up too quickly!

For the past two years, my older daughter has had the privilege of attending a Montessori pre-school with some remarkable teachers and so many kind, down-to-earth families. So, what could I possibly give the teachers to show how much I appreciate their hard work and dedication? My answer is always to make something homemade. This year, I decided to make some decorated sugar cookies.

I really love the saying on these cookies because, as a former classroom teacher, I know how much teaching is an art. Each of my daughter's teachers received a plaque cookie, along with about half a dozen of the mini-pallet cookies. 

I'm a gift-giver. I love making handmade gifts, but the one prerequisite I have regarding the gifts I give, is that they have to be useful. I'm not into trinkets. I figure baked goods always fall into the "useful" category because who can't use a cookie, cake, cupcake, or pastry? Along with the cookies, I gave each of the teachers a large tea cup/mug from Anthropologie. I know when I was a teacher; I would have loved getting this gift from one of my students. Heck, I'd love to get some decorated sugar cookies and a mug from Anthropologie any time.

 

Decorated Cookies for Teacher Appreciation

The sugar cookie recipe can be found here (at the end of the post).

The royal icing recipe can also be found here (also at the end of the post).

 

For the cookie cutters, I used:

Whisked Away's Extra Large Maryann Cutter, which you can find here.

A small circle cutter from this set (which is one of my favorites)

 

For the Royal Icing colors, I used AmeriColor gels in a rainbow of colors. I used a lot of leftover colors from another set of cookies, so I mixed Egg Yellow and Tulip Red to get the orange, and Royal Blue and Tulip Red for the purple. For the black, I mixed all of the colors together, with a bit more Royal Blue and purple. I always try to mix my colors at least 24 hours in advance because they darken substantially with time.

Instructions for decorating the cookies:

1 – I used white piping consistency icing to outline all of the cookies. I freehanded the pallet shape on the round cookies.

2 – Then I flooded all the cookies with white royal icing. I allowed them to dry for about 12-24 hours before adding the next layer of decorations.

3 – Using 20-second consistency, I piped the blobs of "paint" on the pallet.

4 – Using piping consistency in black, I wrote the text on each plaque cookie.

5 – Using the leftover icing from the "paint" colors, I added a bit more detail to the plaque cookies.

 

This post is linked to these parties. 

 

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