The Dollar Store Girl

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Do-It-Yourself Marbled Ocean Sugar Cookies

Wanna learn how to marble your cookies so that they look like pieces of art?..Read on my friend!

We all love cookies. Me probably more than you but we all love them! And what's better is that I'm going to show you how to make them look like million dollar cookies! Marble is a luxury for home interiors but who says we can't apply that same luxury to our cookies? We're doing this. Make room on your counter and let's get this party started. 

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.**

What do you need to buy?

I purchased all my materials from the Dollar Tree. It was my first time shopping there and I was pretty happy with the difference of selection they have compared to Dollarama. I found a greater selection of canned and packaged foods than other dollar stores I've been too. Also, I am quite pleased that they don't exceed their $1.25 rate. It makes a huge difference at the check out. 

The sugar cookies I am trying to make come in a cookie mix package from Pillsbury. They are a great time saver, saves you a few ingredients and you're only required to provide the butter (or margarine) and water. Most people already have them available at home so this saves you a bit of money. 

The next thing I needed was the frosting. I chose Duncan Hines Whipped Frosting. They had other brands of frosting available but Duncan's is one I most recognize and trust and I know it tastes great too. 

Lastly, you'll need food colouring. Thankfully I already have some at home but you can purchase some food colouring gel at Dollar Tree too! I have never been to a dollar store that sold food colouring before, so I was really happy to know that Dollar Tree sold it. Their colour selection was minimal but I assume that's just because other colours were bought out. 

The rest of the ingredients you'll need aren't generally available at the dollar store, such as butter. If you don't have any at home, you may have to shop at your local grocery store. 

You can sign up to receive email updates from Dollar Tree here so you'll always hear about their latest products.

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The Baking Steps..

These sugar cookies are pretty easy to make given that the cookie mixture is already packaged for you ready to mix with butter and water. This recipe also required other steps which I'll show you here:

STEP 1:

Mix the contents of the sugar cookie mixture with butter and water. You'll know it's mixed when you can form it into a ball. It's as easy as that! 

It asks for softened butter so I quickly microwaved mine for a few seconds in the microwave.

The left shows melted butter and water that I mixed with the cookie mixture. The second image shows what it looks like once it's all mixed together. It's turns into a tight pack that is easy to mold.

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STEP 2:

For this step (which should really be step one but going by chronological picture) you'll want to do a quick set up of your baking sheet with parchment paper. You can also use butter, spray oil or whatever else you have on hand that is used to prevent food from sticking. It doesn't matter as long as it works and doesn't affect the taste of your cookies.

I figured it was best to use just one sheet of parchment since it only makes 12 cookies.

STEP 3:

Begin by grabbing a small handful of cookie dough and start rolling it into small cookie balls. After you have formed the ball, flatten it lightly between both of your hands. Lastly place it onto your tray that has been lined with parchment paper. 

STEP 4:

Place them in the oven. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the time and temperature to bake them at because I threw away the package. Oopsie woopsie!

Here is a picture of them in the oven...

Here's a picture of them OUT of the oven. NICE!

See? Making them isn't so bad. The steps are so easy. Almost too easy. Except I would say that you have a bit of a mess to clean up afterwards. I will say that these cookies smelled heavenly while they were IN and OUT of the oven. I was tempted to eat them but my will power was strong that day! They were undeniably easy to bake and so tasty to eat (after the marbled was done and photographed!)

Tip* Clean as you go is a great way to limit your mess and organize your time. 

Are you ready for the FUN part of this recipe?! Yes, absolutely you are! Marbling is fun and it's something each of us need to experience. So without any further interuptions, LET'S MARBLE!

The Icing

The first thing you're going to need to do is find 3 empty medium sized bowls that are deep enough for dipping. You're going to want to add equal parts icing to each bowl. I chose whipped icing for this recipe. It helped achieve the "waves" effect. 

The Food Colouring

Next, is the food colouring part. You'll want to add two (or just one) colour(s) to each bowl of icing so you can create a marbled look. At the beginning of this recipe, I decided to try out three different variations of colours but quickly realized I loved the ocean blue marbling the best. I believe the application of the icing went on smoother with the blue. 

I used food colouring  I already had at home but there is some food colouring gel available at Dollar Tree. The food colouring I used came in four different squeeze bottles (blue, red, yellow and green). 

I used blue and red food colouring together. Didn't like it

I used green by itself and blue by itself. I liked them. Blue being the one I loved most. 

Important* Use a tooth pick to swirl your icing around to create the marbled look. Use light pressure.

The Dipping

This can be either fun or a natural disaster.

It was a natural disaster for me. Well kinda. Originally, I wanted to just dip them halfway but the icing proved to be too thick. I would dip them inside and naturally, at the very bottom it would be all white icing because the swirl wasn't down that deep, so when I removed the cookie the majority would be white icing and it all just become way too thick. 

So that is when I thought about just dipping them face down into the marbled icing. This way it would copy the marbled design without ruining it too much. I would remove the cookie by slightly turning it clockwise (or counter clock-wise) to mimic the ocean waves. This worked out beautifully for the blue icing.   

This is how they looked when they were all dipped. You can notice a lightly side dipped green cookie. It was as far deep as I could go without ruining the design. It wasn't that pretty and was one of the first to be eaten. 

The red and blue one was also eaten.

And so was the one that looks like a star. All eaten. And it was F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C.

This was my first time making anything like this before. I never experimented with icing designs and only ever watched baking tutorials on Instagram. It was nice to finally be able to swirl icing because I know I've wanted to do that for a while. 

As far as taste goes, these sugar cookies tasted absolutely fantastic. I swear I rolled my eyes into the back of my head every time I took a bite! 

If you like baking cookies and icing stuff, you should give this recipe a try! 

I got my cookie mix and icing from Dollar Tree at $1.25 each. 

I wish you a nice cozy day :) And good mental health.