Spring is here and that means BASEBALL has begun!  I am a HUGE baseball fan and have been a lover of the Seattle Mariners my entire life!  GO M’s!  But can you believe that this is the first time I’ve ever made baseball cookies?

I have been a baseball fan since birth.  My older brother Robert used to take me to Seattle Mariners games on the local city bus all throughout my childhood.  He’d teach me the ins and outs of the games, the line ups and I loved every minute of it.  We’d play catch out in our front yard where he’d quiz me on the Seattle Mariner players, their positions and numbers.  It’s really one of my fondest childhood memories.  I thought of Robert when I made these cookies… and I was happy.  Did you know that I threw out the Ceremonial First Pitch at a Mariners game back in 2008?  Probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life!

When I decided I wanted to make these cookies, I looked online for examples of other peoples work and I found everyone makes baseball cookies using royal icing.  I am not a fan of royal icing.  In fact, I don’t like the way it tastes so much that I refuse to really even learn to work with it.  I mean, what’s the point of making it if I’m never going to eat it?

I started these cookies with my go-to recipe for sugar cookies.  You’ve seen this recipe a dozen times before on my blog and I’ll probably use it a dozen more times.  It really is that wonderful.  And for the frosting, I used my traditional buttercream frosting.

I posted a picture of these cookies on my Facebook page and on Instagram and got some feedback that they looked sloppy and homemade.  The person also said that people prefer royal icing because it looks more professional.  Well, I tried not to comment negatively on Facebook to this womans feedback… but I feel like I want to say something here.

I am a home baker.  I am not a professional.  I am a blogger who loves to bake, try new things in the kitchen and share my results with my readers!  I am not striving for perfections or to look like every other store-bought cookie-cutter cookie or cupcake out there.  I truly enjoy that the things I bake look like I made them from home.  That truly is the entire point of my blog… to show that anyone at home can make things that are not only delicious, but beautiful.  So yeah.  thanks for pointing out that it looks homemade… cause that’s what I was going for.  🙂

Anyways… back to the cookies.  I really LOVE how these baseball cookies turned out.  I only wish I lived closer to my brother so I could share them with him.

Easy Buttercream Baseball Cookies

Step One – Frost the Cookie

Spread an even layer of buttercream on the cookie.  Make sure you create a flat top and sides creating a disc of frosting.  Using the flat side of the spatula or a bench scraper works well for this.

Step Two – Create the Stitching Pattern

Using the cookie cutter, press the side gently into the buttercrea creating a patter to pipe the stiching of the baseball.  Do this on both sides of the cookie.  NOTE: Press gently into the buttercream, you only want a faint pattern, not one that goes deep into the buttercream.

 Step Three – Pipe the Stitching

Using the red buttercream in a piping bag fitted with the Wilton #1 tip, pipe the stitches onto the cookies.  Using the pattern you pressed into buttercream, frost a “V” shape along the line making sure the tip of the “V” lands on the pattern line.

Flip the cookie over and recipe the sticthing on the other side making sure the stitches so in the opposite direction.

Step Five – Allow Frosting to Set

Allow the cookies to sit out for a couple hours until the frosting has firmed and set before putting away or serving.  You don’t want the red frosting to smear all over the place.