Cookie Failure...

I know you probably think these look okay, but believe me I made a bad decision and paid for it. Handsome had errands to run yesterday morning, so I figured I make cutout cookies and surprise him when he got home. Close, but no cigar. 

I baked off two dozen delicious cutout cookies in no time. Then it was time to make the icing that I can always count on. The recipe calls for shortening, 8 cups of confectioner's sugar, vanilla, almond flavoring...and heavy cream, added between cupfuls of the sugar. You only add 3 T. of cream at a time, and you get a perfect consistency. It's a no-fail recipe...until yesterday.

I had heavy cream in the fridge, so I grabbed the bottle and added the first three tablespoons. The container smelled a bit sour, but I figured it was just the cream around the rim and cap of the bottle and cleaned it. I tasted the cream and it tasted fine to me. So onward I went. I could still smell the "sour", but figured it was just a residual aroma.

All the cookies were frosted when Handsome got home. He walked into the kitchen and said, "You made cookies!" He walked over to the platter and said, "Does something smell off to you?" I'd already cleaned up the kitchen, so I explained about the cream. We discussed at length and I said it might be the frosting, but every time I picked up a cookie and smelled it, it smelled fine to me.

I ate a cookie and said I didn't think they tasted bad or smelled bad, and then I pulled the leftover white icing out of the fridge and we inspected that. Long story short, I ended up in tears (having just spent a couple hours of baking and decorating), and tossed the lot into the trash. I didn't want to take any chances.

Handsome was very kind and said that I can't be perfect every time I cook or bake, and in all our years together, there have only been a handful of what I'd term disasters. I count this among them.

We made dinner together. We had prime rib, mashed potatoes and steamed peas. Then, I pulled out a (cheater) package of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookies and baked those for dessert. Not at all what I'd planned, but then...I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. (Sorry for the pun.) 

I tossed the heavy cream, too, by the way. I'll do better next time, for sure. I won't be baking today, electing to work on my heart brooches instead. I'm putting this little fiasco behind me, and will concentrate on something completely different for the day. It's snowing again today, so stitching is a perfect pastime. Don't tell anyone how badly I messed up those cookies, okay? It can be our little secret.