Monday, April 30, 2012

Recipe: Red Panda Cookies

The traditional cake and candles has been replaced by something much cuter this year: red panda cookies! I challenged myself to find a red panda cookie cutter (a repurposed cat head cookie cutter) and a simple way to decorate dozens of treats (Red Panda Network logo). For what purpose? Building awareness for red pandas, of course!

If you haven't heard, I pledged my birthday to the Red Panda Network and wanted to do something special to celebrate. After all, it's not every birthday that you turn a quarter of a century old! I can't wait to share these with my coworkers tomorrow and hope they enjoy having a special treat on an otherwise ordinary Tuesday. Stay tuned for an update and read on for the recipe!

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Recipe:
1 box Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Dreams sugar cookie mix
1 box Dr. Oetker organic vanilla icing mix
1 box food coloring (you'll need red, yellow, and green)
Vegan dark chocolate candies (I used pure chocolate that came in a dome shape; these were near the bulk bins at Whole Foods)

Cookies:
1. Prepare ingredients for sugar cookie mix.
2. Add food coloring to milk for sugar cookie mix. For one box, try 32 drops red, 8 drops yellow, and 4 drops green.
3. Prepare sugar cookie dough per box directions.
4. Roll out dough to 1/4" thickness using a rolling pin.
5. Cut out red panda shapes using a cat head cookie cutter.
6. Bake cookies (14 min at 325°).
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until dough is all cooked.

Decorations:
1. Prepare vanilla icing, adding in margarine and milk until it reaches a thick (not runny) frosting consistency.
2. Scoop frosting into a decorating tube. Alternatively, cut off the corner of a thick resealable food bag and insert a decorating tip.
3. Draw ears, eyebrows, stripes, and a snout onto the cookies with the frosting.
4. Insert one chocolate onto the snout as a nose, and "glue" on eyes with a small amount of frosting.
5. Carefully dot frosting in the eyes to bring your panda to life.
Note: Additional tools that may be useful include a knife, chopsticks, or toothpicks.

Special thanks to Jesse for helping with decorating and my mother for her creative ideas!

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4 comments:

  1. Whow, that's creative, we'll be heating up the oven.

    HAPPY Birthday Kaylin,
    Again, Thanks!! so much for choosing Red Panda Network for your birthday fundraiser!

    This is the only acceptable way to heat and eat red pandas :-)
    And it's helping the conservation of our cheerful yet so threatened furry friends and their habitat in the wild.

    Enjoy your day,

    Dirk
    CEO
    Red Panda Network

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Dirk! I'm so glad your organization is looking out for the red pandas in such a considerate way. It was my pleasure and I had one of my best birthdays yet!

      Delete
  2. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=486646764681411&set=a.310162915663131.86382.100000082761505&type=3&theater

    i made my own as well! long live the red panda!!

    ReplyDelete

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