Droopy Daisies

***UPDATE*** Brand Castle was immediately in contact with me.  They are sending us a new kit to try.  I'll let you know how the new one turns out!


For my Princess' birthday, I had impulsively picked up a packaged cookie mix.  The planets didn't align correctly and they didn't get made then.  That was rectified today.

To be honest, I hadn't expected much from the cute little box.  I figured the cookie cutter that was included would be the real prize.  Let's just say I was glad I hadn't set myself up for failure.

This is the package. Ultra cute and definitely eye-catching. 

This is what I found in the package.  Fair enough.

This ingenious little device is the key to the whole operation.  Use this side to cut out 20 cookies.

Then use this side on half of the cookies to create the tops of the daisy sandwiches.  This is sturdy enough to keep and use again.  We will be exercising that option at our house.

This is about 4 tablespoons of butter, in my estimation.  I had to nuke it a bit.  Somewhere along the line, spring has gotten lost on its way to my house and things are a bit chilly.

You also need to add flour and water.

And, of course, the cookie mix.  Until today, I had never used a mix that required the addition of flour.  A little peculiar, I must admit.

Now, here is where things got a little off kilter.  The side of the box reads as such:

The back of the box, where the actual instructions are found, read as such:

It's a little tough to read here, but they clearly state to add egg along with the butter, water, and flour.

So, I had a peek at the ingredients.  Looks like the egg is already in there.  I vetoed adding more egg.

It comes together to form a ball not unlike a sugar cookie.  Flour (and lots of it) is needed to keep the mixture from sticking to either the rolling pin or the counter.

Or sticking to the baby.  Never let the cookie mix stick to the baby.

I probably could have squeezed one or two more cookies out of this mix, but the kids were having too much fun plastering themselves with it for me to take it from them.  The directions call for a greased cookie sheet, but I found parchment worked just as well.  Used multiple times parchment, of course.  No need to throw it out after just one use.

I did find it took a bit of practise to get the top cookies cut so they were centred properly.  I accept complete and total blame for this inadequacy.  A ruler has always been my best friend.

I turned the oven on to pre-heat to 350 F while the cookies chilled out in the freezer for ten minutes.  The directions were a little off on this point as well.  It had originally called for beginning the oven pre-heat back when you started mixing up the cookies.  In our house, that was a good half hour ago.

When the cookies came out of the oven, the uneven texture was a little suspect.  But we soldiered on.

I whipped up the butter and icing sugar as directed.  The package actually lists powdered sugar, but my Canuck grocery stores don't carry such an animal.

Once the icing mix and some milk are added - watch out.  The colour is enough to make any tiara wearing princess do backflips.

Then, ice away.

Sandwich them together and voila!  Lemon (sorta) flavoured daisy shaped sandwich cookies with an oddly raspberry-ish flavoured neon pink icing.

The end verdict?  The kids don't like the taste of the cookies.  E1 barely took a bite, E2 nibbled at the icing, and E3 fed his to the dog.  The red food colouring still comes through as bitter, the cookie texture is just weird, and the things just taste artificial.

I wouldn't call it a total loss, though.  I did not expect gourmet cookies here.  I expected to spend time with the kids.  And we did spend time together.

All in all, a pretty gosh darn good afternoon.  The whole kit cost us about $5 at HomeSense.  I'm not sure I'd buy another one, but I'm certain I've spent more than five bucks entertaining my children with less satisfying results.

Here is the company's website.  They make a number of ingenious kits for all sorts of occasions. 

I'm going to forward my thoughts on our experiment to the company.  I'll let you know what (if anything) they have to say. 1. 2.

Droopy Daisies

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