Disclosure: Hamilton Beach provided items for review to facilitate this cookie swap post. All opinions expressed within are my own and have not been influenced in any way.
I deceived a two year old.
Let me explain. My youngest son was born 3 weeks before Christmas 2 years ago, and juggling a birthday party with a holiday party has been a bit of a struggle because, since he just turned 2, he doesn’t really have his own friends yet. This sweet baby is lucky because he has many people who love him, however, all of those people would be invited to our holiday open house.
So, this year I combined the baby’s birthday party and a holiday cookie swap into one big extravaganza (hides face in palms). Luckily the baby doesn’t yet know he was technically shortchanged and he really, really enjoyed all of the sweets at the party, so I think he was happy either way.
COOKIE SWAP RECIPES
My middle son was begging to help me cook, so he helped make the cookie dough with the Hamilton Beach 6-Speed Stand Mixer. I found the power of this mixer to be similar to my other brand-name stand mixer. It was light enough to carry around the kitchen, but sturdy enough to handle gingerbread dough.
This mixer has a lot of bang for the buck. It was easy to use, and the sleek design makes for easy storage. I also appreciate that mine came with 2 mixing attachments, a dough hook, and a splash/pour shield. These accessories are sometimes extra with other mixers I have used – but everything was included in the box for the Hamilton Beach stand mixer which I saw as a huge plus!
We made several different cookies to “start” the cookie buffet, including pie crust pinwheels, butter cookies
and gingerbread trees…
and melted snowmen.
The best tasting (albeit least attractive) recipe was the smores bars.
Hamilton Beach also sent a 6-speed hand mixer to review, which I liked so much that I promptly donated my old hand mixer. This little tool has LOTS of power and mixed my sugar cookie recipe easily. This hand mixer had a pulse action that made blending light dough recipes super easy. I have used the hand mixer several times since the cookie party and am still impressed.
These sugar cookies were stamped with a homemade cookie stamp (see similar here).
My husband’s favorite were these pecan pie cookies made with pie crust.
COOKIE SWAP FAVORS
No party at my house is complete without a little goody to send home with my guests.
I made these cookie trays with the merry and bright design from the Silhouette store and a tray from the dollar store.
Guests also received a Santa’s milk glass (cut with my Silhouette CAMEO) and applied to Starbucks Frappucino glasses with a festive straw (Target).
The kids also decorated blank aprons – with a little frame pressed onto it with my CAMEO and heat press. The kids decorated their aprons with washable markers, so they could be redecorated after a good washing!
I loved seeing each child’s creativity come through!
COOKIE SWAP DECORATIONS
In addition to the tree, I added extra little details around the house – like this illuminated wreath to our resident deer head.
We also decked out the kids in matching ugly sweatshirts – which they wore with shorts because it was 75 degrees that day in mid-December – unheard of for the Northeast!
Hamilton Beach would like to help one of my readers make their own cookies (or other baked goods!) by giving away both a Hamilton Beach 6-Speed Stand Mixer and a Hamilton Beach 6-Speed Hand Mixer. Entrants must be residents of the 50 US states and Washington DC and 18+. Note: Hamilton Beach is unable to ship prizes to P.O. Boxes. Please see terms and conditions in the Rafflecopter below for all details regarding this giveaway.
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