An Out-of-this-world Birthday

These cookies were for our friend Landon's 5 year birthday party. The party was outerspace themed, with planets hung from a blackened ceiling, a stomp rocket target game, real astronaut food, a space shuttle pinata, a rocket launch in the backyard, and more...  I'm hoping all our friends forget about this party before my son's in September, because ours will definitely not be as cool. 

I didn't have any outerspace cookie cutters, so I had to improvise.

I used a smooshed circle for the planet, gingerbread man for the astronaut, bell for the rocket, and what I think is supposed to be a hat for the flying saucer.

This is how I usually start my cookies. I trace the cutters onto paper and then sketch how I want the cookie to look in the outline. 

Next time I think I'll use colored pencils to try out the colors in the design before frosting them. This will cut down on the number of mookies (mess-up cookies), which I really need to do especially when making chocolate cookies, because I 

can't. stop. eating. these. cookies.

  

By the way, if you decide to make these cookies, which you should, use Hershey's special dark cocao instead of the regular unsweetened cocoa. I tried both and the dark is more delicious. The color is darker too- you can see that the rocket and flying saucer above were made with the dark and the others with regular. Both are good, but dark is better. 

Also, these cookies are amazing because they do not spread or lose their shape AT ALL while baking. Really. They are fool-proof. And you don't even need to chill the dough! I didn't even know such a dough existed!

I am a fan. Thank you LilaLoa for a great recipe! I am trying her vanilla variation today. Yum!