Art Party

Art Club has ended for the year at all three of my schools. So it was time to PARTY!

That means cookie decorating (one cookie per artist) , art games, foil sculptures, and finishing up odds and ends. This year it meant oil pastels,  phrase illustrations, and for a few, painting details on their paper mache pieces.

I always bring a ton of stuff- all the cookie fixings, along with fruit, carrots, chips and salsa, etc. The set up includes a colorful thrifted table cloth.

Games include geometric shapes to arrange in pictures, visual thinking puzzles, and close-up photo identification cards. The kids have fun with those- they can play as teams trying to guess what each photo close up is. The name is on each card as a word scrambled clue. 

And we had rolls of foil for sculpting.

I make all the cookies and the frosting. Why? Because I'm nutty. And I love an excuse to bake.

These are the BEST Sugar Cookies.

And the BEST Buttercream Frosting. 

YUM.

Char's Sugar Cookies 

COMBINE in a bowl:

                    5 Cups Flour

                   1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

                   1 tsp. Baking Soda
                   1 tsp. Salt
CREAM with electric mixer: 
                   1 Pound Salted Butter

                   1 Cup Sugar

                   1 Cup Powdered Sugar

ADD to creamed mixture:
                   2 Eggs

                   1 Tablespoon Vanilla

NOW slowly add dry ingredients.

ROLL to 1/4 inch thickness on floured surface, and cut out.

 (If dough is sticky, refrigerate to firm, then reroll and cut.

BAKE cookies at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes.

Number of cookies will depend on size.. And how much of the dough you eat. (Not that I ever do that....) Can be made ahead and frozen. I think I got about 60 (3- inch ) cookies from each batch...Note to self: 3 batches is more than enough for 8 classes..

My Best Buttercream

(adapted from Billy's Bakery Vanilla Buttercream)

1 Cup salted Butter

6-8 Cups Powdered Sugar

1/2 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

2 tsp. Vanilla

In electric mixer, cream  room temperature butter until smooth, about 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add 6 Cups of the sugar, alternating with whipping cream and vanilla. Gradually add more powdered sugar to desired consistency.

Make it a Wonderful Day!