Spending Quality Time with Your Kids: “Frozen” Elsa & Anna Holiday Cookies
If you want to make memories that will really stand out for your children, then bake with them!
Making and decorating holiday cookies is big for kids, and can be a fun way to spend an afternoon with your favorite people.
Remember to take pictures, because if you’re going to go through the hassle that comes from making this kind of a mess, then you’ll want the bonus of getting pics of flour smudged noses and blue teeth frosting smiles to make up for the cleanup.
Cookie Cutters
To make Elsa and Anna cut-out sugar cookies, or sprinkle cookies as some people grew up calling them, then you’ll need a person-shaped cookie cutter similar to a gingerbread woman. Mix up some appropriate royal icing with colors to make the sisters’ dresses and hair color.
Regular butter frosting for cookies tastes much better because, of course, butter. The frosting won’t dry hard, but it’s not like your kids are going to be doing any fine detail decorating. But you decide. Whatever you’re used to is probably the best choice for you.
You’ll definitely want a snowflake cookie cutter, too. Seeing pretty snowflakes and the princesses on a plate together is a wonderful cookie combination and will help clue in relatives to the “Frozen” theme if the cookie incarnations of the princesses aren’t too recognizable.
You can use a snowman cookie cutter to make Olaf if you’re feeling really ambitious, or you can buy one like this.
Cookie Hack
This is big for parent’s self-care: make the dough the day before when the kids are asleep. Even better, make the dough and put it in the freezer a month in advance. If you make the dough with the children, roll it out, cut, bake and decorate all in one day, you’ll be exhausted. Especially if your children are young and want a hand in everything.
Another hack is to make the cookies beforehand, too. If you can, cut out and bake at least half of the cookies ahead of time. While the cookies are baking that your children cut out, they can start decorating the pre-baked cookies immediately instead of getting antsy and refusing to wait for their cookies to cool.
If they don’t mind just doing the decorating, cut out the cookies, bake and freeze. When you’re looking for an activity to do with your children, the cookies are ready whenever you want to jump right into decorating.
Before decorating, put the cookies in a deep cake or casserole pan. This will cut down on mess and mishaps.
One last hack: make the children eat before they start decorating. They’re less likely to get violently ill sneaking frosting if they have something healthy in their system.
Make it a “Frozen” Day
This may be a hard one if the movie is a favorite, but put on the “Frozen” music and sing along. Have some hot chocolate and enjoy your time together.
Send us pictures of what you made. We’d love to see your kids’ brilliant creations. Have fun!