balloon cookie pops on a stick

To go along with the Elmo cupcakes that I made for the class party to celebrate Micah's 2nd birthday, I also made balloon cookie pops as favors. I actually got this idea from my good friend Helen, who had originally asked me to make balloon cookies for her daughter's 2nd birthday party (but that later on turned into making Pink Panther cookies and rainbow cookies!).

Since I didn't have a balloon cookie cutter, I had my hubby make me a custom copper cutter! Then I made a couple batches of sugar cookie dough (recipe in my new book!), rolled it out to about 1/8" thick, and used my shiny new cookie cutter to cut out the shapes.

As mentioned with my heart cookies on a stick, once the cookies were cut out, I placed them on top of lollipop sticks that I laid out on my baking sheet, gently pressing the dough to surround the stick. Then I baked them at 350F for 10-12 minutes until just golden.

Then I whipped up a batch of royal icing (recipe also in my book!), divided it into three portions, and colored the portions red, green, and blue. Using stiff icing, I outlined each balloon cookie, and then filled it with runny icing.

After letting them dry overnight, they were ready! 

Since I was giving them out as favors, I wrapped each one individually in cellophane bags tied with raffia and a custom birthday favor tag, but you could also use them as cute centerpieces as well!

Nothing says "Happy Birthday" better than birthday balloons, right? :)