The only good kind of flood is the cookie kind!

I LOVE to make sugar cookies and I love decorating them even more.  In true Kiley form I am always excited to start, attack with much gusto, and then ten minutes into the frosting portion of the show hit the hate button.  I never understood why my cookies always looked like frosted gunk.  Then I remembered that years ago Brenda (aka mi madre) shared with me the concept of 'flooding'...well well well what a smart woman she is.  

I am still working on a technique that really works for me.  Sometimes the colors run, other times the frosting doesn't harden enough.  It is a vicious cycle.  I'd get one piece right, but another would inevitably be wrong.

Granted, they are just cookies and I make them for fun...but I have issues with things being Kiley Perfect* and will work until they are....or I give up (whatever comes first).

A perfect example of this happened just last week.  I baked onesie, carriage, and bear cookies for a baby shower.  I had to do them a few days in advance because of a hectic week I had signed myself up for.  When I got to the shower and saw the cookies.... holy embarrassment batman!  The faces of the bears had run and they looked like demon spawn teddy bears.  I immediately took them off the plate and trashed them.  NO WAY was I being associated with something like that or being known as the girl who can't draw a bear face. 

I digress.....
 However, tonight I think I've hit my stride.   I banged out a bunch of pumpkin, ghost, and circle cookies for girls night tomorrow and I'm liking them. 

Here are a few tips that I think helped me get to a point where I can say they are 'Kiley Perfect'

• don't draw your outline too close to the edge or else your flooding will embark on a journey to your counter top
• when flooding the cookie use more frosting than you think you need and spread slowly..otherwise it looks like you cheaped out on the frosting
• let your flooded cookies dry overnight before decorating them as your cute bear faces will turn into demo spawn faces
• theres no need to be overly obsessed with the ouline, once you fill the inside it will look just fine

*Kiley Perfect: it is really pretty simple to explain...whatever it is i'm doing whether it be crafting, baking, cooking, cleaning, organzing...I have to be able to own up to it and not feel guilty, embarassed, or ashamed.