Have you ever wanted to learn to make those beautiful designer cookies that you see as wedding favors? Or maybe those cutesy baby rattle and baby buggie cookies at baby showers? Well you can. You can learn to make these designer cookies to sell or just to give to make your friends and family happy, but the first thing you need to start with is a great and easy sugar cookie recipe. After trying many, many different recipes, here is my favorite with the instructions to get them to turn out great every time.

Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe

1 1/2 cups butter/softened
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of confectioners sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder

First, make sure your butter is softened. 1 1/2 cups of butter is three sticks. I soften them for 45 seconds in the microwave. You want them softened, not completely melted.

Next, add you white sugar a little at a time. Make sure it is mixed and finish mixing it on high. Then add the confectioners sugar, a little at a time with the mixer on a slow speed. After all the confectioners sugar is mixed in, once again, turn the mixer on high to really “fluff” up the mixture.

Now add the vanilla. I use clear vanilla to make my cookies look as white as possible. Next add the eggs, one at a time. Also, crack your eggs in a small bowl to make sure you don’t get pieces of shell in your cookie dough.

Once you have your eggs mixed in, add your salt and baking powder. Then add the flour slowly and again, one cup at a time, keeping the sides of the bowl scraped clean with a spatula. It takes a little more time to add the ingredients slowly like this, but it really makes a difference in the quality of cookie.

There you have it. Everyone will love this easy sugar cookie recipe whether you make plain cookies or go all out and really make them into designer cookies.

When I was a kid, I used to love to make the following recipe for watermelon bombe. A bombe is a frozen, domed-shaped dessert that combines different flavors of ice cream, sherbet or sorbet. This particular bombe is made of sherbet, but when you serve it, it looks surprisingly like a slice of watermelon. The mini chocolate chips help add to the illusion. On an extra hot day, the icy cool sherbet is a welcome treat. It’s lower in calories than either ice cream or sorbet, and it’s easy for an older child to put together all by himself. Just be sure to serve it and eat it quickly - especially on a hot day.

Watermelon Bombe

Ingredients:

• Lime sherbet
• Pineapple sherbet
• Raspberry sherbet
• Mini chocolate chips

Needed Items:

• Round mixing bowl
• Aluminum Foil
• Chilled dessert plates

Line the bowl with aluminum foil. Spoon slightly softened lime sherbet into bowl, making sure to fill it all the way to the rim of the bowl. Place the bowl in the freezer until the sherbet is frozen.

Repeat the process, using a thinner layer of the pineapple sherbet. Return to freezer.

Finally, fill in the rest of the bowl with the raspberry sherbet and freeze until firm. When you are ready to serve the “watermelon,” invert the bombe onto a chilled serving platter, remove the aluminum foil and slice the bombe like you would a watermelon. Place each slice on a chilled serving plate and decorate with mini chocolate chips for the watermelon seeds. Serve immediately!