So my new found passion is cake and cookie decorating. I can't call it new, really. I have been making my kid's birthday cakes for many years now. And I have always aspired to make pretty cookies. But my husband reignited a passion when for an anniversary gift he signed me up for a Wilton cake decorating class. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, and have started searching out cake and cookie related sites and blogs. One of my new favorites is Bakerella. She has some amazing recipes and something called cake pops that I'm dying to try my hand at. (I'll post if I ever actually do!) While searching her blog, I discovered her pretty cookies and found out that she was inspired by a book called "Cookie Craft". I checked it out of the library and was hooked!I made my first set of fancy cookies two days ago, and decorated them yesterday. I have to admit, for a first effort I'm pretty impressed. I used the sugar cookie recipe from the book but used my own cookie icing recipe that I had tried previously. I loved the results. I used an apple cookie cutter that I've had for quite some time but had never used, and my brand new cupcake cookie cutter I bought at Crate and Barrel last month.
Because I didn't want to make too many icing colors (I am a bit lazy) I frosted the leaf of the apple with white icing and covered it with green sugar. The stem was the same brown I used for the cupcake cups, and then I used red for the perfect apple. I think anybody who loves apples would love a plate of these yummy cookies!
The cupcake cookies reminded Brendan and I more of sundaes than cupcakes, but I love them anyways. I struck to a simple white frosting for each one (see note above about laziness) and made brown cupcake cups for each one. I did try various different sprinkles and designs so that there were several different kind of cupcakes on the plate. I topped most of the cookies with the a red cherry on top (made with the apple red frosting). 
All in all I'm quite satisfied with my cookies. The best part is they taste great, too.
