Hadlies First Birthday-Baked Goods!

For my niece's first Birthday my Sis-in-Law asked me to help out. I decorated the main cake, and made some delicious cookies from my favorite cook book Better Homes & Garden. The cookies are called "Melt-m-your-mouth Sugar Cookies".

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Mix together butter and shortening. Add sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Beat in as much flour as you can and stir in the remaining flour.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in 300 oven for about 15 minutes or until sides are set. Do not let edges brown. Cool on cookie sheet for one minute and transfer to wire rack and let cool. Yields approximately 60 cookies



For the cake we just used a normal sheet cake. We also used the ball shaped cake pans to make the lady bugs. A hostess snowball and black licorice made the face of the lady bug. To create the grass, I just used a grass frosting tip.