Getting Started with this Whole Cookie Kit Thing
So, the holidays were rolling around, right? And everyone’s all “festive this” and “magical that.” My sister, bless her heart, starts talking about these fancy Christmas cookie kits she saw online. You know the type, probably cost an arm and a leg for a bit of flour and some sprinkles. And I thought, “Heck, I can make that. How hard can it be?” Famous last words, let me tell ya.
The Great Sprinkle Hunt of ’23
First off, getting the bits and pieces. You’d think sugar and flour would be easy. Nope. Everyone and their dog was panic-buying baking supplies. And sprinkles? Don’t even get me started. I wanted those cute little gingerbread man sprinkles. Did I find them? Of course not. Ended up with some generic red and green balls. Good enough, I guess. It’s the thought that counts, or so they tell me. I also grabbed some basic cookie cutters, nothing too wild, just a tree and a star. Figured those were standard issue for Christmas.
Wrestling with the Dough (Well, the Mix Anyway)
Okay, so for the kit, I wasn’t baking the cookies yet, just making the dry mix. That part was actually pretty straightforward. I dug out my go-to sugar cookie recipe. Flour, sugar, baking powder, a pinch of salt, some cinnamon and nutmeg for that Christmas-y smell. I measured it all out carefully into a big bowl. Almost forgot the vanilla powder I specifically bought for this, which would have been a bit sad. I made sure to whisk it all together really well, so no one ended up with a clump of baking soda. Then, I poured all that dry stuff into a nice clear cellophane bag and tied it with a bit of festive ribbon. Looked pretty decent, if I do say so myself.
Icing, Sprinkles, and All That Jazz
Then the icing. I decided a simple powdered sugar glaze would be easiest for whoever got the kit. So, I measured out a good amount of powdered sugar into another smaller bag. I wrote a little tag: “Just add a tiny bit of milk or water and a squeeze of lemon if you’re fancy!” For decorations, apart from my “award-winning” generic red and green sprinkles (which went into their own tiny bag), I found some small tubes of colored gel icing I’d bought on sale ages ago. Thought that would be fun for drawing faces or whatever. So the full list of what I prepped was:
- Dry cookie mix in a bag.
- Powdered sugar for icing in another bag.
- Those red and green sprinkles in a tiny bag.
- Couple of colored icing gel tubes.
- The cookie cutters (a star and a tree).
Putting It All Together (The Moment of Truth)
I got a simple cardboard box, the kind you get gifts in. Nothing too fancy, because who keeps the box anyway? Lined it with some red tissue paper I had lying around from last Christmas. Probably. I tried to arrange all the little bags and cutters inside so it looked kind of intentional. Then I scribbled some instructions on a piece of card. My handwriting is famously awful, but hey, it adds to the homemade charm, right? “Handmade with holiday spirit… and a slight chance of kitchen chaos,” I should’ve written. I just put down the basics: add butter, egg, vanilla extract to the mix, roll, cut, bake, then decorate. Simple enough for most folks, I hoped.
Honestly, by the end of it, I was just glad it was done. It wasn’t one of those super polished, influencer-style kits, but it was real. It was something I actually put together with my own two hands, even if I grumbled a bit about the sprinkle situation.
So, Why Even Bother, You Ask?
My niece was getting this one. She’s at that age where making a mess in the kitchen is basically a hobby. And I figured, even if the cookies turned out looking like something a dog chewed on, she’d have a blast making them with her mom. Plus, it saved me from buying some plastic toy she’d forget about in a week. This felt a bit more… I dunno, like a shared activity? Or maybe I’m just getting sentimental in my old age.
She loved it, by the way. My sister sent me a picture of the cookies. They were definitely… unique. But my niece had a huge smile covered in icing, so mission accomplished, I guess. Would I do it again? Ask me next November. Probably. After I’ve sufficiently blocked out the memory of the Great Sprinkle Hunt.
