Pumpkin Carving Cookies from @KatrinasKitchen

Two years ago I was excited to sit down with my toddler and carve a pumpkin with him. I even bought a newspaper to put down because that’s what all of the cool parents do, right? This was going to be his first real jack-o-lantern and I wanted it to be perfect. Nevermind that I very much dislike carving pumpkins and hadn’t done it since I was in grade school. We were going to do the whole sha-bang right down to toasting the pumpkin seeds and eating them.

Have you ever carved a pumpkin with a toddler? He was interested for about 3 minutes. And my little man just so happens to be very opinionated about messes. He dislikes messy things almost as much as I dislike carving pumpkins. This was about as messy as he had ever been at his 1st birthday. He seriously picked off every single sprinkle and then wanted to be finished.

So here I am having this super-special mommy and son bonding experience covered in pumpkin slime while my son doesn’t even want to be in the same room because he can’t stand the smell. I persevered. I did it all with a joyful heart. When I was finished I placed a candle in the bottom, turned down the lights, and asked him to come and see our masterpiece.<

Surely he was going to shower me with compliments and tell me that it was the coolest thing he had ever seen in his two and a half years! Instead I heard, “Where’s the nose?” Then he promptly went back to playing.

Pumpkin Carving Cookies from @KatrinasKitchen

Sigh. I gave up on noses a long time ago. This applies to all smiley faces, not only pumpkins. I just can’t make a nose look good. There is no room for creative license for a toddler, however. You either have a face with a nose or you don’t have a face at all.

Well, with these cookies you are free to add a nose or not. Just use melted black or dark chocolate to draw pumpkin face parts on a piece of parchment paper. I piled them all up and let my little guy decorate the way he wanted- no slime, and no stink! Noses optional.

Pumpkin Carving Cookies from @KatrinasKitchen

I made a few too…sans noses, of course. I had a hard time choosing my favorite design. But my little man stole the show with his beautiful-nosed pumpkins and won the blue ribbon. I just LOVE baking with him! We had so much fun together and it was much better than the ill-fated pumpkin-carving fiasco of 2009.

Pumpkin Carving Cookies from @KatrinasKitchen

You can find my favorite basic sugar cookie and buttercream recipes here.