My neighbor, Joanne, was co-hosting a bachelorette party a few weeks ago, and the other co-host wanted to give everyone a favor. They ordered monogrammed koozies in the wedding colors (purple and silver)… but then they thought they should have something to go inside the koozies. That’s where I come in.

Joanne hired me to make cookies to stack up and put in the coozies — my first paid baking job! I made them all purple and silver, but did some with big hearts, some with small hearts and some swirls.

I had seen the swirl technique on Pioneer Woman’s blog around Christmas when Bridget from Bake at 350 did a cookie decorating tutorial. I hadn’t tried it before, but it was actually quite easy and looks really fancy.

Sorry these pictures are blurry. You should check out Bridget’s tutorial and photos for a better idea of how to do it.

Then, since everything is better when it sparkles, I put some silver pearl dust on them. I brushed a tiny amount of reconstituted powdered egg white on the silver hearts first, then painted on some of the silvery stuff. But I put the glitter all over the swirls.

I stacked them up and wrapped them in some plastic treat bags from Michael’s so they would fit easily in the koozies. They turned out really pretty! And Joanne said everyone really enjoyed them, which is the most important thing.

A few notes:
*I used my normal sugar cookie recipe and the royal icing recipe from the Gourmet cookbook.
*I learned that it is easier to outline the circles if I pipe counterclockwise (I am right-handed).
*I realized it only takes about an hour to bake the cookies, but the decorating takes ages. I need to work on that.