Mask Cookie Pops

Baked Mystery Mask Cookie Pops

from Everyday Dishes

image from CookieCarrie.com

What You'll Need

Cookies

• 1 cup sugar • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened • 1 tsp vanilla • 1 egg • 2⅔ cups flour • ½ cup sour cream • 1 tsp baking powder • ½ tsp baking soda • ½ tsp salt • ¼ tsp nutmeg • Mardi Gras mask cookie cutter • gold disco dust (a.k.a. edible glitter) • gold and silver dragees (a.k.a. edible balls)

Royal Icing

• 1 large egg white • 1 tsp lemon juice • 1 ½ cups powdered sugar, sifted • purple, gold, green and black food coloring

Let's Do It

1. Cream sugar, butter, vanilla and egg until light and fluffy. Stir in remaining ingredients until dough forms. Place dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper and roll out to ¼" thickness and refrigerate 1 hour. 2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place dough on lightly floured surface and cut dough with mask cookie cutter. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet. 3. Bake 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned and let cool. 4. To make the icing, beat egg whites and lemon with hand mixer. Reduce mixing speed to low and add powdered sugar until combined and smooth. 5. Separate into 4 bowls and color icing with purple, gold, green and black food coloring. Spread base coat of icing on cookie; use black icing to outline eyes and outside of the mask. Place dragees around mask and sprinkle with disco dust. Let icing set then place on platter for sharing!

arms and face painted with mystic sigils that signaled her surrender to dark powers. And the fifth was nothing more than a shape of shadow, mist and moonlight, a ghostly woman astride a spectral steed.

"The only thing they need," the woman murmured, "is a leader. I intend for that to be you ... and me."

"Speak reason, Beast," Metatron growled.

"I think it would be easier to show you," she said. "You have me at your mercy, and the source of my power is the mask. Only someone wearing the mask can defeat me, or restore your companions from their current, freed and powerful selves to the miserable minions, crippled by prejudice, abuse, and selfloathing that you encouraged ... Jasper."

Startled that the Beast knew his true name, Metatron didn't pause to wonder at why she would tell him such a weakness when she clearly had the upper hand. He pulled the batlike mask from her face and held it over his own, intending to crush her windpipe ... only to see her slump over, unconscious. He held her in shock, but found he couldn't move ... and the Beast's voice, no longer female, but resembling his own ... spoke in his mind.

"When you tried to destroy me three years ago, your mirrors directed the sun to me, burning my body to ash ... but I was able to shift to mist at the right minute, and the heat fused me with a nearby tree when the burning steam sank into its trunk. I remained there, my consciousness preserved in the wood, until the tree was chopped down, a n d enough of the wood was pulped, made into papier-mâché, and turned into the mask. It was easy to possess the person who wore it, and pass it onto another and another, arranging for this house and its traps, building my power and seeking out a suitably innocent body to prove immune to your holy charms, while arranging for the servants and nobility to see a glamour of you as the newcomer Marquis, even posing for the great portrait downstairs. Now, you and your former allies will be reunited, free to explore your impulses, curiosities, whims, and romances for ages as you master your new powers. You see, I never had any intention of slaughtering or dominating the world, heralding an age of destruction. Instead, you all will spread the temptation of individual expression, sparking an enlightened age, an iron age, an age of electricity and of devastating power that breaks the elements to pieces, an age of words and images projected through the air and flying machines and rebellion and pursuit of your deepest desires, instead of the abusive and controlling paradigm that so tortured you all with guilt and sacrifice. I will use you to defy everything you built your life around, and offer the world true freedom ... and perhaps, someday, I will be considered the hero of this story. But let us fly ... we have one more errand to do tonight."

With that, the ribbons of the mask sealed onto Metatron's. .. no, Jasper's... neck, and from his shoulders erupted powerful wings. He picked up the woman in red, and flew out into the night.

The next morning, at the Convent of St. Monica, several miles away, Sister Gertrude knocked on the cell door of a still-sleeping young woman. Shaking her head and groaning, "Novices ..." under her breath, she moved to wake the sleeping woman. "It's going to be time for Matins soon, Vanessa. Time to wake up ... Good heavens, girl! What happened to your throat? It looks like someone tried to strangle you!"

Vanessa awoke, rubbing her eyes, sleepily. "Sister ... I ... I don't know. I had the strangest dream ..."

Siren Send-off

This is our first issue following the post holiday ‘back to normal’ onslaught. Many of the members of our contributors found the subject matter compelling as they were asked to look within to consider the sorts of masks and personas they don in their day-to-day lives.

Do you wear certain masks with certain people? Do you always show exactly who you are? May this issue do more than entertain with original stories and facts on masked balls. May it inspire you to take off your own masks ... and enjoy the process. See you next month for a cup or two as we celebrate tea!