babies + cookies = supreme cuteness!

My sister is having a baby in about three weeks. Whoohoo! To celebrate, Bug and I flew up north (and met my parents there as well) to attend the beautiful baby shower thrown by her friends. They outdid themselves as usual. Her friend Kris asked me to make decorated sugar cookies for party favors. Remembering how Kris color-coordinated Meredith's wedding shower down to the last detail, I expected the same for the baby shower. I opted for two designs using the shades of pink, brown, and white of the invitation. Half the cookies featured the same simple line drawing of a screaming (yawning?) baby shown on the invitation; the other half were onesies with a variety of decorations. In other words, an open canvas for playing with icing!

I was so happy with how they turned out! The biggest challenge was packaging them for carry on luggage. Luckily, not a single one broke, and they were a big hit with the guests. Yay for cookies! Here are a few of my favorites.

I packaged them in individual cellophane bags tied with ribbons. Each guest took home two cookies: a onesie and a baby.
The face from the invitation was white, but I thought pink, white, and brown faces were cute.
See how there are spots on the brown ones? They weren't completely dry yet. The spots disappeared by the next morning.
Pink! (And oh my, you should see all the pink clothes this kid is going to wear!)
See the sports theme? For my brother-in-law...
One of my favorite details were the antennae. So wispy! Loved creating shapes by dragging a toothpick through the icing.
I limited the number of 3D decorations. I actually liked the look of the icing colors blended together, flat. Also, time was of the essence, and it takes quite a lot of time for each layer to dry before you can apply more frosting or package the finished product. It made me realize how time consuming some of the more detailed cookies are to decorate! (Check these out for adorableness.)

I have never worked with royal icing, so I did a test batch a few weeks ago. I didn't post about them here because I didn't want to spoil the surprise. These awesome tutorials from Sweetopia, as well as some additional Interweb research, provided super hints and tips on decorating with royal icing. I used Antonia74's royal icing recipe. As you know, I still am not a fan of sugar cookies, but I recognize that they have a place in cookiedom. A decent-tasting recipe that holds its shape well while baking is essential; I used this one, but you could easily substitute your own favorite.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the best part: the lovely Nanette took time out for her day to come over and help me decorate! She got to learn about royal icing, I had help to cut down on the decorating time, and we got to chat and listen to music! Thanks, Nanners!