Chocolate Cut Out Cookies

My son had his first "friend birthday party" this past Saturday-- he turned 5 and wanted a "football party". No problem! This is the perfect time of year to find football themed things. I baked up this cake...




...and put together 8 treat bags with little football doo-dads in them. I wanted to buy and add some of these...




...to fill up the bags. When an unexpected snow squall left our driveway/road a mess and kept my kids home from school, my errand running plans were shot. What to do?

I mixed up these cookies:


Ingredients

* 1 cup butter
* 2 cups white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* heaping 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy; add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Mix in the vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa powder and baking powder; add and mix well. Wrap dough in waxed paper and chill for 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Divide dough in half. Roll out each half to 1/4 inch thick. (I recommend rolling your dough between layers of waxed paper to avoid having to use flour which can leave your cookies with a "dusty" look.) Cut with desired shaped cookie cutters. Place on lightly greased cookie sheets and bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on cookie size.

I don't own a football-shaped cookie cutter so I used a small glass bowl and overlapped my circles to form the outline of a football. I piped simple white icing laces and, voila!



Wrapped in saran wrap and tucked in the bags, they were perfect.

It's always a good thing when you can improvise with what's on hand! The party? It went off without a hitch. The cookies? They were a hit. My pocketbook? Untouched, since I used all ingredients from my pantry. Most importantly...

The birthday boy?

I think he was pretty excited about the whole affair.

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This post is linked to:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, hosted at Blessed with Grace.
Tasty Tuesday, hosted at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
Works For Me Wednesday, hosted at We Are THAT Family
Ultimate Recipe Swap, hosted at Life as MOM.