Sugar Cookie Baskets

This was an idea that I had in November to give to a a few good friends of mine. My friends daughter who loves to bake and make crafts inspired the whole idea.  I thought that by making homemade cookie dough and frosting that it would help make baking sugar cookies a lot easier.  So I made up the cookie dough and wrapped it in paper with some cute red and white baking thread, and gave them some cookie cutters and the recipe tied up to match.

I used spice jars of IKEA to put sprinkles in. With this basket I used the traditional Christmas theme of Red and Green, and then Blue for snowflakes, and some gold and silver sugar balls and holly and berries, then in the back I have red, green, and blue sprinkles.

Each kid received a special apron and cute headband for the girls, and the boy got an extra little treat!

Close up of the sprinkles.

This is the final packaging once it was all completed.  I had to use two baskets to fit it all.

RED and BLUE SNOWFLAKE BASKET

This is everything I used for the Snowflake themed basket for my dear friend Andrea from It's The Life.  She always gives me the most AMAZING gifts all year around so I wanted to do something special and "crafty" for her.  I was pretty proud of myself this year! (haha)

Her basket had Sprinkles Cupcake mix, my FAVORITE cupcakes in the entire world.  I picked these up for her in NewPort Beach, California when I was at the Sprinkles store for Thanksgiving, but you can pick some flavors up at William Sonoma.

Spoons from Anthropologie, and two plastic containers with red and white frosting in them.  Both baskets received these.

I did red, blue, and white sprinkles to match her theme, and used snowflakes,  red hots, and silver beads this time, with white, red, and blue sprinkles.

For her cookie cutters I used the same Snowflake cookie cutters that I used on my gingerbread cookies this year from William Sonoma, along with some special ones in the present for her son.

Here is all the finished baskets!

Rachel's Christmas Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 C.  unsalted butter (at room temperature)

2 C. Sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

1/4 C. Sour Cream

1/2 tsp. Fresh Nutmeg

1/2 tsp. Cardamon (optional)

5-6 C. Flour

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Salt

In a mixing bowl add butter at room temperature and mix together.  Then add 2 cups of sugar mixing until the mixture because nice and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing on a low speed.  Once all the eggs or incorporated into the mixture, beat on medium speed for 5 more minutes, until it becomes nice and fluffy.  Add the extract to the mixture and sour cream, and mix until its fully blended.  

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt and sift together. Add the cardamon and nutmeg to the bowl and mix together.  Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well until the dough is finished.  Let it chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour (or over night,) 

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 Cubes of Butter at room temperature

4oz Cream Cheese at room temperature

1 tsp of Madagascar Vanilla

1 tsp of Almond extract

(You can also use peppermint extract and it makes an amazing frosting for cakes and cookies!)

4 cups of Powder Sugar

3 tsp. Heavy Whipping Cream or Milk

Beat the butter and cream cheese together.  Then add flavoring and mix together.  Add 1 cup of powder sugar and 1 tsp of milk, mix together and repeat process until all the sugar is incorporated into the frosting.  Whip on medium high for 5 more minutes until the frosting is nice and fluffy.  Check frosting at this point and see if flavoring and consistency is ok.  If its to runny add more powder sugar, if its too stiff add more milk.  Continue this step until you get a nice spreadable frosting.  

Now its time to frost your cookies and decorate them!