I figured the best way to do this would be to make some decorated sugar cookies in the shape of goats. I decided to go with my trusty (and fricking fabulous, thank-you-very-much) gluten-free shortbread recipe and substitute goat butter instead of regular butter. (As always, click the images to see them bigger.)

The goat butter turned out to be a lot more like shortening than I was expecting. It was white and very greasy, but it assimilated into the dough better than normal butter did. The dough had the proper consistency, though, and was a dream to roll and cut, so no problems there – yay!

They seemed to brown a bit quicker than with my normal recipe, so I baked them a bit less time than usual. They also spread a bit more than I was expecting, but they didn’t lose too much of their goaty shape, so it’s okay.

Next day I set about decorating them! I decided on white goats and black goats, each with a little red heart (you know, for the Valentine part of this whole project). I used my entire jar of black powder coloring and my royal icing STILL wasn’t black, so I had to make a quick run to the store to get some (real) gel coloring – thank goodness they hadn’t closed yet!

And, since I am devious, and goats are often associated with the devil, I decided to make a red devil-goat cookie, complete with a BLACK HEART. Isn’t he cute?

As for the taste? They’re awesome. The cookies are softer than my normal shortbread recipe, but still sturdy enough that they don’t fall apart in your hands (which is especially important in gluten-free baking). The royal icing keeps them together well, and the flavors work great together. Interestingly, the goat butter seems to have made these cookies taste a lot milkier than the normal cow-butter recipe.

One of my favorite things about this season is that Blue Bell starts selling their amazingly delicious peppermint ice cream. It is, without a doubt, my favorite ice cream of all time. And doesn’t it look pretty in that adorable little penguin cup I got at Target?!

I also found those super cute kawaii food stickers at Borders today and couldn’t pass them up! ^_^

In other news, I was busy making dinosaurs and snails out of gum paste during my make-up class this week (while the rest of the class was making flowers). It was pretty fun. The dinosaur’s tail broke off, but here’s a picture of my little snail!

And in my normal (night) class, when we finished up with the dessert buffet, my teacher made us practice our piping (again). This time I decided to try and appeal to what they really want us to do (instead of something I find more fun, like my mermaid cake). My teacher was pleased. I actually think my piping is getting a lot better. I took a picture for later reference when we have to make a cake to go on top of our croquembouches in a couple weeks.