I love the holiday season, I love Christmas and I love sharing yummy treats with friends. I also really like receiving yummy treats. 🙂 When I start my holiday baking to make plates to take to friends, teachers and neighbors I sometimes get a little overwhelmed. Lately I have been having to do everything with a 12 pound baby wrapped onto my chest because its literally the only way to get anything done. That being said there are a few ways I save time and sanity in the kitchen. This is where Betty Crocker® Cookie mixes come to the rescue.
I really love the Betty Crocker® Peanut Butter cookie mix, my favorite thing to do with the mix is to roll the dough into 1 inch balls and put them in a mini muffin pan, then right when they come out of the oven (baked according to package directions) I place a peanut butter cup in the center and press it down. Currently for Christmas there are peanut butter cup bells that have darling snowflakes on the tops of them, call me crazy but the little snowflake just makes it so much more Christmas-ie. 🙂
My kids love making and decorating cookies. We have made sugar cookies four times in the last week and half! Here are some tips to make the entire cut-out cookie process easy and smooth. I can’t save you from a 4 year old dumping an entire container of sprinkles out, but you know, who can? 😉
5 Tips for Easy Cut Out Sugar Cookies
- Cookie Mix. Use Betty Crocker® Sugar Cookie mix and add the extra flour it recommends for cut-out cookies.
- Homemade Frosting. Use a fail-proof delicious buttercream frosting recipe like THIS one. It is my favorite.
- Save it! Make an entire batch of frosting and what you don’t use keep in an air-tight container for up to a week, If you’re kids are like mine they will be asking to make them again and having frosting on hand is more than half the work!
- Contain the Mess. Use a jelly roll pan to for each child to decorate on. Sprinkles on the floor are inevitable but at least you can minimize it with each child having a “workspace”
- Only 1 Shape. Its always fun to use all your different cookie cutters, however if you really want to save a little time just use a Christmas tree cutter. You’ll only have to make green frosting and then use lots of different sprinkles.
Because gifting baked goods is so fun I decided to help you Spread Cheer with Simple Surprises this year with these free printable gift tags. Penguins happen to be my favorite animal and polar bears and foxes are pretty cute too!
You can download these fun Christmas tags by clicking HERE. If you use these printables please let me know! I love to see it when you use things from the blog! Share it with me in the comments or tag me on Instagram (@handmadeintheheartland) or facebook!
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What is your favorite thing to make with Betty Crocker® mixes? Will you be using them to make plates for your neighbors and friends this holiday season? I’d love to hear! and if you share on social make sure to use #bakingwithbetty
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Betty Crocker. The opinions and text are all mine.