Valentines Day Party Favor Sugar Cookies

I know what you're thinking. What are those???? They're party favor game cookies! Still baffled?









I was flipping through "Crazy About Cookies" by Krystina Castella and saw her Party Favor Cookies. Remember those party favor games? The ones with the silver balls that you had to get into the holes? She made those from sugar cookies! Brilliant!

My mind immediately began spinning. Imagine the possibilities! Any holiday, any theme, any size. Birthday parties, school parties, bake sales, craft fairs. Kids would love these!

Off to google I went but what were those little favors called? I googled "party favor game silver ball hole". Ha. Or something like that. Eventually I found that they're called "Pill Puzzles". Who knew? Not me.

So what to use to hold these little cuties? At first I thought I'd buy some party favors and take them apart. Bad idea. I'd probably break them and how would I get them back together so that kids could easily get to the cookies after playing the game?

I decided to look around the house for things to use. Peanut butter jar lids? Mayo? Tuna cans? Canning jar lids! Yes! Those might work. I have plenty and could buy more without buying the jars.

Then I decided to see if I could find some kind of box instead. These would be nice if they were smaller. Something like this might work if there was a window in it.

Later at the craft store, I found some Wilton favor boxes in the wedding section. The size was perfect - 2 x 2 x .75 inches. They were frosted though. I decided to try to make it work.
I had a 2x2 square cookie cutter. Perfect. I made a template and cut a window out of the top. Part of a treat bag would work over the window with double-sided tape inside.

I also gathered two canning lids - a wide mouth and a regular. I had a round cutter that fit perfectly into the smaller lid. I wasn't so lucky with the wide mouth lid.

Time to bake cookies! Since Valentines Day is coming up and I wanted to start with a simple design, I went with hearts. I poked holes in the dough before baking. After baking, when they were still soft, I went back and cut them again with the square cutter to make sure they still fit the boxes.

Am I the only one that sees faces in these every time I look at them? Not the best design.

I made a few round cookies for the canning lids. I trimmed up the smaller circle after baking. I hoped that the larger one spread out enough to fit the wide mouth lid.
It didn't.

I got to decorating and assembling. I'm still in love with the idea. The execution of my first attempt has a lot of room for improvement though.


Like the maze? That idea came to me because I forgot to make holes in the dough before baking. That was one of those happy mistakes. Imagine a better, larger maze. Fun!

Improvements for next time....

The box...Unfrosted, with a window, opening on the top instead of the side. There must be one somewhere. Maybe clear, plastic jewelry boxes?

If I use the canning lids, the cookies should be thinner.

Smaller holes or larger sprinkles/dragees.

Pipe around the holes before flooding. See the cookie on the bottom left? I didn't pipe around those holes. The holes were made smaller, which was good, but I think that it contributed in making the flooding around them lumpy.

Thick piping around the outside to keep the "ball" on the playing field. Without it, the game isn't really playable. The balls roll to between the cookie and box and get rather stuck there.

I would love to see some experienced cookie bakers make these! I think that the whole concept is so amazing. Oh, the possibilities!

During my googling, I saw some pill puzzle rings. How about turning 1 inchers into rings?

If you do make any, would you please, please leave a comment with a link so that I can check them out?

If you have any ideas to make these better, I would love it if you shared!

I'm definitely going to try these again!