Thanks for the encouraging words, loves2cook4six! I did kinda wonder if this is how ya make marshmallow creme! I actually have minimarshmallows for the Rice Krispie treats. Here's the recipe: Aunty Doe's Shortbread ⨠From SharonÂs (Canarybird) Aunt Doe 1/2 lb soft butterâ¨(2 sticks), salted is recommended 1/2 cup sifted icing sugar (confectioner's sugar) ⨠2 cups flour ⨠Mix butter and icing sugar, then add flour, mixing by hand. ⨠Form into a brick shape...if necessary put in fridge to cool, then slice into thick rectangles. ⨠(Slice thickly from the end of the "brick" and then slice each one again so the pieces come out at around 1" x 2" (2.5 cm x 5 cm) and about 3/4 inch thick. She liked to put a small dot of either red or green glace cherry in the middle of each.) Bake on parchment lined cookie sheet at 275F for one hour. Ta-daaaahhh! Done! Well, I did a bit of chilling, then rolling, then using a heart-shaped cookie cutter and they came out fine! The royal icing outlines hardened, and I thought I'd add a few more doodads before I did the flooding (see pix below)! Thanks for the tips on flooding and royal icing--I had wondered how long it would keep and if I could put it in the fridge! I have my squeeze bottles ready, but probably won't get to it until tomorrow afternoon.

My daughter's birthday is December 16....and I gave her a cookie decorating party when she was about 7 or 8. I made the dough and rolled out and cut a tray of assorted shapes for each kid before the party. Then rolled and cut some more while they were decorating the first tray. The kids loved it!! The mess was huge!!! LOL!! This is the recipe I used. Sugar cookies: 1 cup of butter 2 cups of sugar Cream together and add 2 eggs beaten with 2 T milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla ( I like a bit more) Mix with the butter mix Add 3 cups flour mixed with 1/2 tsp salt....and as much as 1/2 cup more flour until it's stiff enough to roll out Make flat patties, wrap and refrigerate for an hour or longer.... Dust board with flour and roll and cut... Bake 375 for 8 to 10 minutes....I use parchment on the cookie sheets....if you don't have parchment....lightly grease the sheets. The absence of baking powder keeps them from rising and keeps the cookies true to the shape of the cutter.....and makes them crisp

How much did you end up getting rid of? I am always confused about those types of things too. My MIL claims that the paste coloring is pretty much good forever, and I've read similar things on the internet, but am not sure I want to keep the ones we have for that long. I guess you just have to use your best judgment, and also think about whether you are likely to ever use it again, or want to buy new anyway if you do. Congrats on getting some of those cabinets cleaned up! I am doing small decluttering tasks left and right lately too. Sometimes it's nice to step back and look at just one cabinet that is clean and perfectly organized :^)

Wow, thank you all so much for sharing your suggestions and considerable knowledge, it is so helpful to me! I use meringue powder instead of egg whites because one of my kiddos had a salmonella infection a few years ago and it was quite an awful experience. We never determined exactly where he came in contact with it; it could have been from handling the reptiles/turtles at school, or from a local restaurant where he was the only one to eat spinach with his dinner salad. Regardless, since that experience, I have become extremely cautious - no bagged lettuce/spinach, no reptilian pets, and no eating anything with uncooked/undercooked eggs, including spoonfuls of raw cookie dough (which I had done my entire life without incident!). Poured fondant sounds like an interesting solution! But could that be piped, or would royal icing need to be used for detail work? Not sure I could handle two different icings..my kitchen was a disaster just using one icing, with the piping bags and bowls for coloring, etc. I am not a neat cook. I'll try adding lemon juice and using Ateco meringue powder next time! I also found another recipe online for a crusting buttercream (with meringue powder) so I may try that as well some other time. So many great ideas here....thank you all so much!