Hello (polka dot) Kitty!

I've always been a "cat person."  If you follow me on Instagram, you might think I'm more of a "crazy cat lady" given the amount of pictures of our kitties.

When I was 6, I fainted in music class.  I remember being in the hospital for several days...they thought maybe I had a brain tumor.  (And worse, when I went back to school, a girl in my class told me that they all saw my underwear.)

Anyway...as my mom hovered around my hospital bed, she asked if I would like something special once we got home.  I asked for a cat.  (At the time, my mom was NOT a cat person.)

Turns out, my fainting was just due to low blood sugar or lack of chocolate, something along those lines.   
I still got that kitty.  Lesson for you kids: faint in class, hospital stay, ask for cat. 

I'm happy to report that since then, there have always been kitties in our lives.  Even my parents were converted to bona fide cat people.

For the cookies, I sometimes get in trouble trying to be too literal with cookies.  If I tried to make actual, realistic cat cookies, I have a feeling they'd look weird.  Therefore, I bring you polka dot kitty cookies...I know the 6-year-old me would have loved them.

To make the cookies, you'll need:

• kitty-shaped sugar cookies

• royal icing, tinted with AmeriColor Super Black, Bright White and Soft Pink
• couplers and tips: #2, #1
• disposable icing bags
• squeeze bottles
• toothpicks

Use a #2 tip to outline the shape of the cookie in grey icing.

Thin the grey and white icings with water, a bit at a time, stirring with a silicone spatula, until it is the consistency of a thick syrup.  You'll want to drop a "ribbon" of icing back into the bowl and have it disappear in a count of "one thousand one, one thousand two." Four is too thick, one is too thin.  Count of 2-3 is good.  Cover with a damp dishcloth and let sit for several minutes.

Stir gently with a silicone spatula to pop and large air bubbles that have formed.  Pour into squeeze bottles.

Working 6-8 cookies at a time, fill in the outlines with the thinned grey icing, using a toothpick to guide to the edges and to pop large air bubbles.

Starting with the first cookie flooded, drop dots on top of the wet icing with the thinned white icing.

Let the cookies dry 1 hour.

Use a #1 tip to add a pink bow.  (I intended to pipe pink whiskers, but then the dots looks like eyeballs...weird eyeballs.  So, bows it was.)

Let the cookies dry 6-8 hours or overnight.

Are you a cat person?  Dog person?  Bunny person? 

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