A Festive Cookie Utility Truck

Hello friends looking for a weirdly specific cookie tutorial! This creation was built for an annual cookie contest run by our local water and light utilities...thus, a utility truck.

**Update, my supplies didn't save originally...but they're there now?**

You will need your favorite cut out cookie recipe and the necessary ingredients (mine is listed below)

Also needed:

• Frosting
• 1 box cake mix and the necessary ingredients (any flavor)
• blue and black/grey food coloring
• 2-4 sandwich cookies
• Marshmallows (mini or regular)
• Pretzel Rods
• Peel apart Licorice
• Jelly beans (in the colors you want your lights, plus orange)

Also a butter knife

Cut Out Cookies

Ingredients

• 2.5c All purpose flour, plus a little extra for rolling out the dough
• 1/4tsp Kosher Salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter (at cool room temp)
• 1c granulated sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions-read full before making

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
• In another large bowl and using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 min.
• Add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat to combine, about another minute.
• Reduce the mixer speed to low, scrape down the sides of the bowl and gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal parts and press each into a 1" thick disc.
• Wrap each disc tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 30 min.
• Position oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 375. (might want to wait a minute if your oven heats quickly)
• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out your dough to a thickness of 1/8"
• Cut the dough into shapes (rectangles). Re-rolling and cutting scraps as you go.
• Lay cookies on parchment papered trays and let chill in the fridge for 20 min.
• Bake the cookies for 5 min.
• Switch pans from top to bottom rack and rotate from front to back.
• Bake 5 more minutes. (there should be a slight golden color creeping at the edges of the cookies).
• Let cool on a wire rack. Do not start cookie construction until fully cooled.

First you will need to bake your cake and cookies.

For the cake I baked a normal 9x13 sheet cake as well as a small loaf cake, from one box cake mix.

For the cookies, I baked one batch of cookies and cut them into variously sized rectangles roughly listed below. You will also need a "truck cab" shape that looks like a very thick "L". Let cookies and cake cool completely before moving on.

Rectangle Sizes

• Three 6.5"x2.5" rectangles for the trailer
• Three 3"x2.5" for the hood, front grill and rear end
• One 2"x2.5" for the roof
• Two 1.5"x2.5" for the windshields
• Two 1" squares for the mirrors (trim to rectangles of your liking)
• Four 1.25" squares for the bucket
• Two 4.5"x3/4" for the scissor lift mechanism
• *I made a couple extra 3"x2.5" rectangles that ended up getting cut into shims for the light poles and spacers for the scissor lift. Each of those pieces were around 1"x0.5"
• The cab is right around 4" on its longer sides, 2.25" for the hood cut, 1.5" from top of hood to roof, and right around 2" for the roof and grill sides.

When I cut mine originally all my pieces were eye-balled, no measuring involved. Use these measurements as guidelines to get proportions, but don't feel like you have to break out the food-safe ruler to measure down to the millimeter.

A note on cookie baking. My recipe calls for the cookies to be chilled, I am lazy and did not read through my recipe so I missed the step to chill your cookies after cutting but before baking. Do not skip this step. If you skip this step your cookies will spread out more and you will need to trim them in order for them to fit together nicely. Chill the cookies.

There are two main parts to the Cookie Creation outside of the truck; the ground and light poles, and the lights.

First you will want to find a flat serving tray big enough to hold everything. To gauge this, lay out one trailer rectangle (the longest ones) and one cab piece touching (back of cab to front end of trailer) in the middle of your tray to make sure it is long enough. Your tray should ideally still have room for a chunk of cake on either end of the truck.

1. Once you have established that the cake and truck will fit, cut your cake into thirds the long way to result in three 13' long cake slabs. Two of these will be the ground that supports your lights.
2. Carefully remove one slab (I used a spatula/flipper, like for a fried egg) and lay it behind where your truck will sit.
3. Carefully remove a second slab and split it in half to give two shorter slabs (approx. 6.5"). Slide these to either end of your tray, running perpendicular to the first.

You should now have an open center will three sides of cake.

Frost the front edges of your cake. (if your Cookie Creation will be viewed from all sides, not just the front, frost all the sides of your cake. Alternatively, use small or halved marshmallows to cover the edges of your cake.

The first step in assembling the truck is establishing the base, this is done with cake.

1. Free your tiny loaf cake from its pan. This will be the "bed" of your truck, place it accordingly.
2. From the final third of your sheet cake, cut a piece (or two) to meet most of the rest of the length of your truck.

To help the wheels look more proportional we will cut a lip for the cookie truck side to sit on. If being viewed from all sides, do the following steps to both sides of the truck.

1. Cut a line into the cake straight down, about a 1/4" (or a cookie width) from the side edge(s) of your cake base. This cut should not go deep enough to cut the whole cake, stop about 1/3"-1/2" (approx. the radius of a sandwich cookie)from the bottom of the cake.
2. Cutting straight in from the side, cut in about 1/4" the entire length of your cake base, to free a long skinny slice of cake.

This will create a ledge for the cookies to sit on.

If you did not chill your dough, or if your cookies spread a little more than intended, you will want to square up some edges. A butter knife should be sufficient.

At this point I cut my trailer pieces all to roughly the same size, with sharper edges, and I squared up my cab pieces. Exact measurements of these aren't as important on these as making sure the opposite pieces are mirror images. To achieve this I cut one, then place it on top of the other piece and "trace" it while cutting.

The rest of my pieces, I sized as we built. Most just needing to be squared up a little to make edges meet nicely.

Always do a dry placement before attaching with frosting. Lay your intended piece in the spot it will be and trim to fit if needed before adding frosting to attach.

Now that your truck pieces are similar and square, we can start laying them.

Take one side of your truck cab and trailer and set them on your cake ledge and take note of spacing. My cookies overhang my cake and I wanted it to be roughly even hang off on the front and back. Now is also a good time to trim your cake base if you have too much.

1. Once you know your spacing, get your frosting out and frost along the bottom edge on the back of each cookie piece(the cab and trailer pieces) as well as the edge between the cab and trailer(I forgot to do this before hand, see pictures for my fix).
2. After frosting each, set it in place on the cake ledge, using the frosting to help keep it in place.

For the wheels you will need 2 sandwich cookies for each side (that will be seen) and some marshmallows.

1. Figure out how you want to space your wheels.
2. Blob a gob of frosting onto one side of your wheel and frost a nice amount onto the bottom edge, this will add to the snow effect.
3. Simultaneously stick your sandwich cookie to the cookie truck with the frosting and press the cookie down onto your tray to smush the bottom edge frosting onto either end of the cookie.
4. If using regular marshmallows, cut in half creating two shorter cylinders (not half cylinders) and use the sticky side to stick them to the cake edge. If using mini marshmallows pile them along the side of your truck to hide the cake.

That's the sides of the truck!

Next up we will be constructing the rest of the cab. To do this you will need your medium rectangles as well as your white frosting "glue" and a small amount (roughly one cookie's worth) of light blue and grey frosting.

First make sure your pieces are the correct sizes. This is easier done now, before everything is covered in frosting.

1. Pick and size your largest remaining rectangle(that is not for the trailer) for the hood.
2. The next largest will be for the grill on the front of the truck.
3. The two smallest will be for the front and rear windshields.
4. The remaining medium one will be for the roof.
5. While you're at it, size larger rectangle for the very back of the truck, just to be sure you aren't cutting but something you'll need later.

With all pieces sized you can start frosting and constructing. Working from the nose back seems to work the best.

1. Frost the grill piece a light grey. Add lines with a darker grey to make it a little more realistic.
2. Attach to front of truck.
3. Attach the hood, frosting on the three attaching sides.
4. Frost both windshields blue and attach above the hood and to the back of the cab.
5. Frost all four edges of the roof and drop it (nicely) on top of the cab.
6. Add back of truck in the safe fashion as the grill, just don't frost it.

You can add the side view mirrors now or at the end. Just gob some frosting on the side of them and stick to the seam of the windshield and cab sides.

Now is also a good time to clean up your frosting connections. Either add more frosting to your connections to hide the cookie edges, or just smooth down what is there. On interior connections (inside the cab) a little extra frosting to hold it together won't hurt.

For the lights you will need pretzel rods, peel apart licorice, jelly beans and frosting.

Before you start, stick some frosting in the fridge. Chilled frosting works a bazillion times better than room temp frosting for attaching light strands.

1. Select the colors of jelly bean you would like for your lights and cut them in half (long ways).
2. Decide how far apart you want your light poles and stab your pretzel rods into your cake ring at those intervals. If your pretzels do not want to stand straight or threaten to topple, add a small piece of cookie, wedged between pretzel and cake for extra support.
3. Frost the top of your cake pieces to look more snow-like. Alternatively dust with powdered sugar.
4. Using one string from the peel apart licorice, measure between the pretzels, holding the end of the licorice at one pretzel and cutting the other end to create the desired curve between them. Repeat between all pretzels.
5. To attach the jelly bean lights, press the top of the cut side of the jelly beans into the licorice string.
6. To hang lights from the pretzels, put a blob of cold frosting on top of the pretzel and push the end of a light strand into it, use excess frosting to cover the licorice. Repeat with all ends, stringing between all pretzels.

While you have the jelly beans out, find a few orange ones and cut two in half (short way) and place in a line on top of the roof. Cut two more in half (long ways), these will go on the front and read for head lights and break lights.

At this point all that should be left is the top of the trailer, including the bucket. You will need, your remaining long rectangle(should be the same as the sides), your long thin rectangles(trim to have straight edges), your four tiny squares, and some extra cookie pieces(you'll cut these up).

1. Cut your extra cookie pieces into three little rectangles, around the size of your side mirrors.
2. Frost all bottom edges of the top of the trailer and attach to the truck sides and back.
3. Frost a little rectangle to the top of the trailer about an inch from the cab. Add frosting to the top.
4. Stick the left end of your first long thin rectangle to the previously stuck little rectangle. The right end of the long rectangle should reach almost to the back end of the truck.
5. The other two little rectangles will stack on the right end of the first long rectangle. (this will prop up the second long rectangle to create a scissor appearance for the bucket to sit on) Frost between each layer.
6. Add the second long thin rectangle on top of the first and small stack. Frosting beneath both connections.

Now the scissor is done! Onto the bucket,

1. Find your small squares and cut them to have flat edges.
2. Frost the four squares together to make a square.
3. Place on top of the higher (right) edge of the scissor.

Following the same light process as before, add a string of lights from your right-most light pole to your bucket.

Bonus points if you drop a lego guy in the bucket and have him hold the end of your lights.

Enjoy your Cookie Creation!