MMSC #32 BAKING PROJECT!

We hope that you enjoyed our Christmas Blog Hop last week and were inspired by our lovely Design Team's Cards and Projects! Remember you have until Midnight tonight to enter your name in Mr. Linky for the Blog Hop and the Sketch Challenge if you haven't done so already. Thank you so much to all of you that participated. We really enjoyed viewing all your wonderful comments and appreciated your flattering responses. We will be randomly drawing names tomorrow for the prizes and announcing the winners on Friday. Good Luck to all of you who entered and be sure to check back for the winners.

This week we have another little treat for you. Our design team chose to feature a "Baking" theme with our sketch this week. Lots of people bake for the Holidays and share their yummy goodies with family and friends. We wanted to share with you a way to present those homemade gifts. This is a tradition in many a households that sure has been made easier with today's premade cookie doughs found in your grocer's dairy case. But, there is nothing like the smell and taste of made from scratch cookies. They fill your home with the fragrance of spices and chocolate. They can be crisp, buttery, rolled, glazed, sprinkled, frosted, decorated, filled with jelly, coconut or nuts and even fried. So, with that in mind, be sure to check each of our Design Team's blogs because we have shared with you some of our favorite cookie recipes for the Holiday Season.

Our Gold Star Winner Winner this week is:
#73 Jessica G

Our Remarkables this week are:

#37 Mrs. Plum
#64 Vickie (basement stamper)

If you would like to be considered for this award, please make sure your card link is posted to Mr. Linky by Sunday of each week.



OUR MONTHLY BONUS SPONSOR FOR DECEMBER IS.....

Fran from the Frantic Stamper Inc. is the sponsor of our Monthly Bonus Prize Winner. You can visit Fran at her store at the Frantic Stamper Inc, your #1 source for rubberstamping and scrapbooking supplies. Friendly one-on-one service since 1996!! You can read about their store upgrading to a 6000 square feet warehouse with many new products at Frantic Stamper Happenings. Fran is offering a MEGA package worth $250 to one of you lucky players this month! Frantic Stamper is also an official vendor for Martha Stewart products and has the Largest Selection of punches online. Please browse the tremendous selection of scrapbooking and card making supplies at her shop. Wow, here is the picture of the MEGA prize package!!! Some lucky winner will receive this. Thank you so much Fran!

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OUR WEEKLY BONUS SPONSOR THIS WEEK IS.....

We are so happy to announce that this week we have the wonderful Simon Says Stamp sponsoring us for our weekly Bonus prize for MMSC32. They are always one of our favorite sponsors because they have over 100,000 items in stock and ship USA orders over $60 and International orders over $120 for free. We are please to have them as a reoccurring sponsor here at the Midnight Madness sketch challenge blog. Be sure to stop in and check out all they have to offer.

www.SimonSaysStamp.com

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THIS WEEK'S SKETCH

This is my baking project for this weeks challenge. I designed this cookie box for yummy homemade decorator sugar cookies! Every year I make loads of these cookies to give to family and friends. Included inside is the recipe for these yummy soft sugar cookies as well as the secret to my icing. It stays in place even if the cookies are stacked and yet is soft when bit into!
I used gingerbread men (themed chipboard stickers), found at my local walmart for only $1.50 per sheet. Martha steward punches both in gingerbread men and snowflakes were used for the cardstock trim. Ribbons were also Martha Stewart and were found at Archivers in the $1.99 bin. Of course I used my favorite bazzill card stock as well as designer cardstock from basic gray, eskimo kisses. I also did a coordinating bucket to hold those holiday chocolates! For the top of the bucket I used my circle spellbinders. They fit perfectly. For more fun projects please check out all of the other wonderful items done by our design team at the HOME of the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge!

Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe

1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
Cream these together
Add 1 egg, mix well with beater
add 1 tsp clear vanilla extract mix well
Add 2 teaspoons baking powder to 2 3/4 cups flour
slowly mix into creamed butter mixture
(dough should be stiff, add up to 1/4 more cups of flour only if needed)
DO NOT REFRIGERATE
Roll out dough to 1/3 inch
cut out shapes with your cookie cutters
Bake in 350 oven for 10-15 minutes until very light brown
Let cool Ice using recipe below!

Decorator icing
(I make a huge amount to separate into colors, as long as the icing is stored in the refrigerator in a covered container, it will stay fresh for up to 2 weeks)

5 pounds powdered sugar
2 cups crisco(vegetable shortening) (or butter but white icing will be slightly yellow)
milk (I use 2 percent)
2 tsp clear vanilla extract

In large mixing bowl (I have a stand mixer but hand mixer will work), cream together the crisco, powdered sugar, and clear vanilla add just enough milk until very thick but creamy
and here is my secret: Add 2 teaspoons cream of tarter
beat well. Separate into individual containers, add icing colors (I use wilton) mix in colors well.
Make sure that icing is covered, until use. I hand pipe my cookies but they can also be iced with a knife. Add sprinkles after decorating each cookie if desired. Icing will begin drying. I leave my cookies out for 1-2 hours to finish drying. Cookies can then be stacked on plates or in containers
By using the cream of tarter in the icing the outside is set but the inside stays soft.
Enjoy!