unicorn poop...

I said a while back that I was gonna justify my pinterest addiction by doing at least one pinned project a month and share it here..as usual I've been slacking!

there is one project that I had been dying to do since I first pinned it (months ago!) ...I originally wanted to do it with the monkey..but since I won't be getting to see her any time in the near future..I decided to do a trial run..and send them to her as part of her birthday present (never mind the fact that her birthday was in February...like I said..I've been a slacker!)

the bought part of her present...a SHARK PUPPET and a SHARK ATTACK MUG have been sitting here all along..but I wanted to add more and couldn't find any of what I wanted..then last week I found this awesome UNICORN BUTTON (check it out..it's hilarious!) and thought...it would go perfect with the UNICORN POOP I found on pinterest!

now I guess it'll be like she gets a second birthday...yeah..sure..why not?

so anyway...UNICORN POOP is this AWESOME sparkly, rainbow sugar cookie idea..which..like I said..I found on pinterest..I believe THIS is the original link from the person who came up with this (did I already say AWESOME?) idea

you form the dough into the shape of little piles of poop..hence the name

I didn't do mine EXACTLY like hers just because I didn't have all of the exact right accoutrements..but still I think they came out pretty darn nice!

you start out by making regular sugar cookie dough...I have my own recipe but I wasn't sure if it would keep its shape as well as some of the pics I saw so I used a recipe from the comments on her post

typical ingredients everyone has on hand:

3 C. flour
1 C. butter
1 C. sugar
1 egg
1½ tsp. baking POWDER
½ tsp. salt
you can also add vanilla or any other flavoring you like..I thought some lemon zest might be nice but I didn't wanna mess with it on my first try

typical cookie thang...cream the butter and sugar together - add egg and mix till combined - combine the flour, baking powder & salt and slowly add to the wet stuff till it comes together (don't over-mix..over-mixing is never good for cookies!)

according to the creator, the number of poops you'll get will depend on the size of your unicorn...but it's lookin' like about a dozen and a half..as far as I can tell (I haven't used all the dough yet) -- believe me..1-2 dozen unicorn poops is PLENTY!

anyway..once you have your dough, ya hafta divide it into 6 equal portions..and dye each one a different color of the rainbow...looks kinda like play-doh, right?

 at this point you could freeze the dough and save it for a later date...

once you have your different colors all mixed up, you're gonna want to chill the dough...I did mine in individual baggies..and flattened them into disks..this helps them cool A LOT faster..the down side is that they also warm back up faster..I split mine in half (so I had 12 baggies..2 red, 2 orange...etc.) ...I wasn't sure I had it in me to make that much poop but also..if the baggies I was working with got too warm, I could swap them out for the ones still in the fridge...in the end I only used half..and it didn't really make a difference that the last bits of dough were warmer..it's almost impossible to tell which poops were formed with cold dough and which were done toward the end

(incidentally this is also the best way to chill pie dough..that way when you start rolling it out..it's already starting with the right shape and goes WAY quicker!!)

anyway...once your dough is all nice and chilled you're gonna want to break off little bits at a time..about half inch balls I guess..and roll them into thin 'snakes' ...one of each color

I highly recommend using a silpat (silicone baking mat) from this point on...if you don't have one it will still work..the original recipe didn't use one and hers came out fine...but you'll hafta use flour to keep the dough from sticking..it will absorb and you won't see it in the final product..but why deal with that if ya don't have to?

once you have all your individual colors rolled out you're gonna twist them into a rope shape...like this:

cookie dough is a bit more fragile than play-doh..so you're gonna want to be careful...but it doesn't hafta be perfect (this one certainly isn't!) ..it will still come out cool!

ok..so now that you have the rope it's time to form it...wrap it around in a coil until it looks like a little pile of poop! here's how they looked UNbaked...

why didn't I bake them ON the silpat? because I was making one poop at a time and transferring them to the pan as I went (and I was too lazy to wash my other silpat! haa)

because they're thicker than regular rolled or cut sugar cookies you're gonna want to bake these a little longer...I baked these for about 11 minutes at 350º

this is how they look undecorated, right out of the oven (I did sprinkle on a little lavender colored sugar before baking) ...I think they're pretty enough just like this!

but if you wanna go full out UNICORN POOP..you'll want to add some shimmer and sparkle! 

  

 this is the finished product...

like I said..I didn't have everything the original recipe called for (which was: Wilton's white sparkle gel, rainbow dragees, rainbow disco dust and star sprinkles) ...neither of the 2 places I looked had ANY disco dust so I used pink PEARL dust instead..I skipped the dragees just because I'm not in love with sprinkles you can break a tooth on..I thought I had star sprinkles but it turned out they were hearts..I wanted stars so I had to go back out to get some..the place I went only had star shaped edible glitter..that worked for me!

I almost forgot to mention that you need an old paint brush to apply the sparkle gel...I also used another paint brush to apply the pearl dust (if you just dip the brush in the dust and kinda tap it over the cookie it will 'snow' down pretty evenly..but you'll definitely want to use two separate brushes as the dust will just stick to a wet brush) 

ok so the first thing you do is brush on a thin layer of the sparkle gel...this is what your sprinkles and whatnot will stick to..therefor once your sparkle gel is applied..you'll wanna work a little quick so that it doesn't dry out! (once again I worked with one poop at a time) 

it was really hard to get good pictures of how sparkly they really are...but in this pic you can kinda see how the light catches the edible glitter stars..especially the one stuck to the white heart on the left

and here you can really see how the pearl dust kinda shimmers...you can see it best on that pink heart in the front..the disco dust would have looked more glittery..but I think this is still very pretty..and all that glitter might have been too much with the glitter stars :)

~ note: if you wanted to use the dragees you hafta put them on RIGHT out of the oven while the cookies are still hot so that they will press into the surface..otherwise the cookie will harden and they will just roll off

this project was time consuming to do alone...it took me about an hour to form just one pan full of cookies (that's 12 unicorn poops) ...it's possible I might have moved a little faster if I didn't feel like complete poop myself all day..but still it's a time consuming solo project no matter what...but if you have access to a baking buddy..or a group of baking buddies...this would be a GREAT rainy day project!

the supplies aren't cheap...but they aren't set in stone either..I'm sure you could be creative..just make sure nobody tries to use craft glitter and I'm sure they'll be fine :)

all in all UNICORN POOP day in brandiland was lots of fun..and I'm pretty sure the whole house will be sparkling for DAYS! ...I can't wait till the monkey can visit so we can make some poops together!

p.s. even though they look too pretty to eat..I couldn't resist...good news..they taste almost as good as they look!