I'm Melting!

I think these cookies are infamous around the Pinterest/Blog world. The melting snowman cookie:

(source)

I pinned it awhile ago and knew I had to give it a try. I love making Christmas cookies and was happy to add a new one in my arsenal (besides the usual peanut butter blossoms, basic sugar cookies, etc). My brother and sister in law hosted a little party recently for Santa on the Firetruck. A little background: my dad and brother are both volunteer firefighters in the town I grew up in. Every year, Santa travels around to the homes of the firefighters on a decorated firetruck and brings the kids presents:

SANTA!! I know him!

We loved it when we were little - my mom would invite over our cousins and some friends and we would wait and wait for Santa to come. Once we heard the siren we would run outside to greet him. Now that we are adults with kids (which is still crazy to me!), my brother and sister in law decided to bring it back and host it this year.

Ok - back to the review. I thought these cookies would be cute to bring and the older kids might think they were fun. The pin came from Crazy Domestic which credited the idea back to The Decorated Cookie. (Apparently Meagan from the The Decorated Cookie Blog really wants to make sure she gets credit for the original idea). I used a combination of both tutorials - using store bought cookie dough and marshmallows like Crazy Domestic, but piping on royal icing like The Decorated Cookie.

I rolled out the dough and then used a knife to cut out some "puddle" like shapes, using a marshmallow for scale. 

I then baked them up

While they were cooling I made some royal icing and then piped it around the edges. When that hardened, I flooded the inside with more royal icing (watered down a bit)

I am a horrible piper and flooder, I know. But in my defense, I was in a hurry and this was only the second time I have piped sugar cookies!

Once I got a couple done, I would microwave a couple marshmallows to get them sticky and puffy and then plop them down on the cookie. A good tip from the Crazy Domestic was to spray my fingers with cooking spray so the marshmallow wouldn't stick to my hand:

Then it was time to decorate. I just used decorating gels from the food store (I was running out of time so coloring the icing and piping it on just wasn't happening).

The Verdict: Honestly, I know the original ones from The Decorated Cookie look way better and more professional - but let's be real - she is a professional! I didn't have the time (or patience) to be making fondant heads, noses, buttons, and piping on the arms. I thought the modifications Crazy Domestic made helped it become more practical for the average baker. I could have spent more time and wish I did have more time to add scarves or different faces, but overall I am happy with how they came out. I would like to say that they are hard to travel with though - the gel icing never really dries so it can get smashed easy.

Bottom line, I would make them again - but certainly allow myself more time. To give perspective, they came out of the oven at noonish and I was hoping to leave the house at 2pm.

Hopefully I can get in some more baking in this last week before Christmas. Anyone out there have any favorites?