A Frozen-Themed Birthday Party featuring gluten-free Lemon Curd Snowflake Cookies

For the First Time In Forever: My daughter Lily turned SIX last week, and like just about every elementary-age child, Frozen is the obsession du jour. Being me, I of course seized the opportunity for a theme party. And I will go ahead and state for the record that I deliberately avoided looking at Pinterest AT. ALL. for any of this. Don’t get me wrong, I love Pinterest for all kinds of things, but for parties, I enjoy the process of coming up with ideas 100% from my own brain, take it or leave it. Scroll down for the cookie recipe, but first, check out a few shots of the other offerings. 

So we started with some Snowman In Summer punch, a tasty (and clear) vanilla citrus fizz:

And here’s the Finish Each Other’s Sandwiches Panini Press station. Three varieties, all made with tasty bread from New Cascadia gluten-free bakery:

Fix yourself up some pesto-topped baby potato Love Experts:

Ready for some sweet stuff? Wanna Stuff Some Chocolate in Your Face? Variety courtesy of Trader Joe’s:

Make yourself a Sno-Kone or a Toasted Olaf:

 

 

Don’t forget to try Sven’s very special cookies:

And finally, some snowflake Linzer Cookies, made with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Shortbread Mix, filled with lemon curd. I really liked how these came out, so check out the recipe below, though I have very little to add beyond the actual mix instructions – the fine folk at Bob’s really know their stuff!

 LEMON CURD LINZER COOKIES

1 package Bob’s Red Mill Shortbread Cookie Mix
1.5 sticks butter
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup lemon curd
sprinkles or powdered sugar as desired
2 tablespoons sugar dissolved in 2 tablespoon water

Prepare dough according to package instructions. The only tip I’ll give you is to trust that it will come out! It seems way too dry and crumbly at first to hold together, and you will despair, but keep working the dough and it becomes totally manageable. I found that not only hand-kneading it but actually rolling it out a few times just to get going was key.

Anyway, do all that and then cut out with either snowflake shapes or whatever you have on hand/floats your boat. I cut out half (about 6) as the bottom shape only and then the top with the second smaller snowflake inside. DO handle very carefully. Bake for 12-15 minutes; the bases will need a tad longer.

Cool on pan for a few, then remove (carefully) to wire rack. Let cool completely, then spread about a tablespoon of lemon curd on each bottom cookie and lay a matching cutout cookie on top. Brush the top cookie with the sugar solution and then sprinkle to desired sparkliness.

But as far as Lily was concerned the star of the show was this custom-made Elsa gown, made by a very talented friend.

— posted by Anne