MAKE THIS: Cinderella Cookies

All dressed up and being silly with one of my best friends!

Last night, I went to a Cinderella Party. No, it was not a 6 yr old's birthday. Actually, there were was not a single 6 yr old in attendance. There was, however, about six grown ladies 'playing dress-up', wearing tiaras, sipping champagne, and watching the 1957 Rogers and Hammerstein version of Cinderella (Staring my girlfriend, Julie Andrews! eeks!). I know as you are scoffing at the utter silliness of a dress up party for grown women you are secretly intrigued and jealous at the delicious indulgence of it all... jealous you weren't invited and jealous you didn't come up with the idea yourself! Because I don't care how old you are, you never outgrow the desire to put on a 'princess dress' and sit around giggling with your friends. You just don't.
So I put on my 'costume' (this horrid er, interesting blue dress I purchased several years ago at the good old salvation army. It has become a costume for many parties...), packed up my cookies and a crystal platter and hopped into my Honda-- I mean, Pumpkin-- and away I went to a magical evening with friends. Okay, I know we are super corny and a little crazy, but it was truly SO much fun.
My contribution to the party tonight was Cinderella cookies, starting with a yummy Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie recipe I got from my (favorite!) former music professor's wife, and topped off with my first experience with royal icing... which for the most part went well, except for I learned last night that royal icing takes approx 24 hrs to fully set, not the hour I assumed, so other than slightly mooshed frosting once they arrived... everything turned out... well...
Like this:

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
1 c. Sugar
1 c. Butter
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 t. Almond extract
1/2 t. vanilla
1 egg yolk
1/2 t. Salt
2 1/4 c. Flour

Cream together until fluffy: sugar, butter, cream cheese, almond and vanilla extracts and egg yolk. Mix salt and flour together; add to creamed mixture. Blend well, cover and chill for at least 30 min.
Roll out 1/3 if dough at a time on lightly floured surface to about 1/8th
H inch thick. Cut out in desired shapes. Bake 7-10 min. on ungreased baking sheet. Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

I cut out high heels (glass slippers) and pumpkins.

Royal icing
(I know there are lots and lots of recipes for royal icing out there... this is the most ridiculously simple one I have ever seen, and it worked great, and got nice and hard and sugar-y which... is what we were going for.)

4 egg whites

4 cups confectioners sugar

Beat egg whites until stiff, add sugar a little at a time until fully incorporated. Tint with food coloring. Use a piping bag/tips to pipe onto cookies and allow to dry for at least 12 hours. (or you could do what i did, because I don't have piping bags, but in retrospect, kind of considering investing in some... at least the disposable kind!, and just use sandwich bags all twisted up at the end... I know... I just made a whole bunch of cake and cookie decorators cry. But I use what I have.)
I piped white bows on the tops first and dusted them with sanding sugar 'glitter', then piped an outline in pale blue and 'flooded' the large area. For my pumpkins I piped an outline, stem, and leaf in white and dusted the whole thing with sanding sugar. (I had plans and icing to flood the pumpkins in a pale orange... but ran out of time, so I just dusted the whole thing with sanding sugar, and they actually looked pretty cute and 'magical'. I didn't get a great presentation/finished product picture because my camera died before I could... here's the best I have, not tooooooooo bad for my first shot ever at royal icing.

Okay, this was seriously so much fun. I highly recommend BOTH a themed dress up party with grown-up girlfriends and making cookies to coordinate with the theme... fun fun! Enjoy!