Chocolate Cookie Train

This is not a review of this Chocolate Cookie Train Kit, per se, just a bit about our cookie decorating night which included said train.

We had talked to Beepa of the Forest (my mother-in-law) about her redneck gingerbread house when they visited last week.

So on a trip to Walmart, I saw the cookie train and knew my guys would love that.  I also knew Malachi would no-way-no-how-not-in-a-million-years eat those chocolate cookies.  I made a batch of sugar cookie trains for him, as well as some bells, stars, and trees.

Now, this is not my first cookie decorating rodeo with these guys.  I expected frustration, messiness, and grabbiness.  I was not disappointed.  They all came to the party.  *This time,* I was mentally prepared and I really didn't care.  I wasn't prepared for this whole fiasco, though.  I couldn't find food coloring or my sprinkles.  So, the white frosting I made remained white.  The cookie train came with frosting, too.  It was green.  And white...  Gumdrops, candy beads, and fondant were also included.  I scrounged up purple sugar and white decorating sugar and rainbow jimmies.

Also, it turns out, the train is supposed to be glued together the day before you decorate it. HA!  This thing wasn't actually going to sit around uneaten for days!  So, I finally had everything together and the boys started frosting train parts and eating the cookies I had baked.  I gave Merrick a bowl of frosting with a knife, Xav had the white frosting bag and Mal had the green frosting in a bag.  Merrick's frosting (which I had made) didn't stick to the cookie when he tried to spread it on. Xav blew out the decorator tip within seconds of starting, so he was squeezing giant blobs of frosting everywhere.  Mal did really well making nice lines of frosting and putting all the candy balls on his train.  ALL The Candy Balls.  Sigh...  By the time I sat down to decorate some cookies so Daddy would actually have a few frosted cookies, the candy balls and gumdrops were gone.  I may have stolen a few candy beads from Malachi's engine, since we weren't going to eat it anyway.

The boys were curious about the use of the "brick" cookies, as Merrick called them.  I showed them how we could have used them to hold the trains upright.  "Why would you do that?" they asked.  "Well," I said, "people put them together, decorate them, and leave them out to look at."  They were shocked.  Who doesn't eat cookies?

I got it into my head to try a chocolate cookie.  Good grief!  What was I thinking?!  Horrible!  Terrible!  F!  I realize that many people who buy a cookie kit, will display and never eat the cookie train, but seriously!  I can't possibly be the only mom with kids who would rather eat it.

Next time, we'll just do our usual bake, frost, decorate, and eat cookies.  Everyone will be so much happier.  I'll definitely look for more fun candy toppings than just sugar and sprinkles, though.

PS.  The train kit also included detailed instructions and a Wilton Cake Decorating class on Craftsy.