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These buttery cut-out cookies are decorated in melted candy and designed to replicate our Josiah Venture Camps Theme for 2016!

There is so much to talk about with these little cookies! I will start with the WHY.

I work for an organization named Josiah Venture. We are a movement of God among the youth of Eastern and Central Europe that finds its home in the local church and transforms society. We plan over 100 evangelical camps each summer in 13 different countries, and each camp has the same theme. This year the theme is “Did You Get My Message?”, and this is the camp logo- on all of the t-shirts and banners and materials.

Last year, I made cookies that replicated our camp theme “You are Here” and they were such a hit that people asked if I planned to do this again… I’m starting to be a little afraid of the next year’s design!!! THIS year was pretty easy- and a lot of fun!

Now for the HOW.

Have you ever pieced two cookie parts together to make a shape not available in the cookie cutter world?

Me neither. When I was challenged to re-create this design in cookie form I knew I could get a hexagon cookie cutter- but how to add that cute little circle at the top? Then, how to decorate them without using Royal Icing? I’m not a fan of all the waiting for it to harden between colors.

Here’s what I did- and it worked (and tasted) GREAT. I realize you will want to make your own shapes and decorations- just adjust the amounts and colors of Wilton’s candy Melts accordingly.  (For a printable cookie recipe, click here)

 INGREDIENTS: (makes about 24 cookies)

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter (softened)
• 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1 teaspoon of butter flavoring
• 3 cups of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 bags of Wilton Candy Melts in blue (or in whatever colors you want to decorate in!)
• 1 bag of Wilton Candy Melts in white
• 1 bag of Wilton Candy Melts in red

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.
• Add eggs, vanilla and butter flavoring and mix well.
• Add all dry ingredients and mix until able to knead into a firm ball of dough (add additional flour if necessary).
• Roll out on a floured counter with a flour coated rolling pin to desired thickness (I made them fairly thick)
• Cut into whatever shape you want- and if you want to join two shapes like I did, gently set one piece against the other on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet and press gently together.
• Bake at 350F degrees for 8-10 minutes and slide off the cookie sheet (leaving on parchment paper) to cool.
• I needed a full circle on top of each cookie, so I used a cookie marker to trace the cookie cutter as pictured.

• I needed 2 items drawn on top of each cookie- an envelope and an question mark. I drew the envelopes out on my computer, found a good bold font for the question marks, and printed several sheets of these. I taped them under parchment paper and used melted white candy melts to trace them. To melt candy melts, you heat them in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring until smooth.
• Then I took that same melted white chocolate and outlined the circle- using my lines as a guide.
• Melted blue candy was used to outline the hexagon.

• Finally, red candy melts are piped into the circle, filling it completely. I tapped the cookie gently on the table to get rid of bubbles before gently setting a question mark in the center. This step further cements those cookie pieces together.
• The last step is to completely fill the hexagon with blue, tap out bubbles, and gently set an envelope in the center. I swirled a little white in the blue to copy the logo’s wave look.

Any squeeze bottle that can be fitted with a small round decorating tip will work, but aren’t these so fun? These are from the Kuhn Rikon Decorating Set. That’s a link to find them on Amazon, but I got mine in a clearance bin at Marshall’s and didn’t even know how much I would love them!

The best part about working in candy melts rather than frosting is that they harden up SO fast. No waiting between colors- and no bleeding of one color into another. Plus they taste like a cookie covered in white chocolate! The cons are color choice. You are fairly limited in what colors you can use- although the Wilton’s site does have this handy chart to help you mix colors. I will use this again- for sure. I loved it.

So. Fun. *smile*  ~enjoy!!!

My role with Josiah Venture is as their intern coordinator. Every year we have over 100 college age interns that spend the summer in Eastern and Central Europe. They partner with local churches and help them reach young people through English, Music, and Sports camps, with the message that God loves them. We also invite churches from the US, Canada and the UK to bring groups of young people over to serve short term. I’ve taken two college-age groups over to Slovakia, and it is a life-changing experience! If you are a part of a church that might be interested in helping next summer, or you might be interested in being a summer intern- check out our website for more info. Applications for 2017 internships will be available in July!

Here’s a link to internship opportunities.

Here’s a link to short-term opportunities.

Here’s a link to a great video that explains more about who Josiah Venture is and what God is doing in Eastern and Central Europe.

Our 2016 interns!

Other cut-out cookie recipes you will love! (click on a photo to see the recipe)