Autumn is here! Well, it was for a bit. Now it’s hot and humid again and I have the air conditioning on. But yesterday…yesterday was Fall and we had the fireplace going. We were cozy with our blankets and watching Mary Poppins and eating popcorn and apples! It was exciting to embrace the change of seasons in such a way. And yes, even this girl, who LOVES summer, is looking forward to our little piece of Wisconsin turning into this:

With that in mind, I’m getting ready for all things Fall! Leaf piles, pumpkins, corn mazes, apple picking, apple cider, apple pies, applesauce and caramel apples. Or…caramel apple cookies!

These were made using my sugar cookie recipe, lollipop sticks, and royal icing, and here’s how I accomplished it.

Once the cookies were constructed and cooled, I frosted the apple part and let that dry for several hours, then frosted the “caramel”, just on the bottom half. I achieved the caramel color by mixing Americolor Ivory, Brown and Gold together. I was happily surprised at how much the frosting actually looked like caramel.

Now, you could be done with the cookie at this point, just lying flat as a cute little apple lollie, but I had the vision of them standing upright, like a real caramel apple does. So I came up with this contraption and crossed my fingers that it would work…

This was sort of a pain, but I was determined to give it a try. I piped a good sized blob of my brown frosting on the wax paper and stuck my apple cookie in it and waited. And watched. And tried not to bump the table. And resisted the urge to poke the frosting to see if it were dry yet. I held off until the next day when I finally dared to peel the cookie from the paper. But this happened…

Sad face.

Well, I figured maybe because I had the wax paper on a cookie sheet, it wasn’t getting enough air circulation. Plus it was humid, and humidity is your worst enemy when you are a cookie decorator. This is another reason I am ready for Autumn’s crisp air!

The cookies were standing pretty good on their own once I took my contraption apart, so I carefully moved the wax paper with cookies to a cooling rack and let them dry some more. Later in the day, I could wait no longer…

Success! I peeled them off and they stood up on their own! Rather sturdy too. I’m so proud.

I am curious to know how it would be to use the same method using actual softened caramel on the bottoms. Would I get the same results once it hardened? Would they stand? I may have to give it a shot sometime. Or if you do, let me know how it turns out. Honestly, I would most likely just eat the caramel straight from the wrappers before it would even get close to a cookie.

Happy Fall, y’all!