Darling Delight: Champagne Kiss Cookies recipe inspired by the Blonde Bombshell!

For the Champagne Kiss cookie recipe scroll down or click here!

Bombshell

  -noun 

1. An explosive bomb.
   
2. One that is sensationally shocking, surprising, or amazing.
   
3. One who is very attractive.
   

 This slang term has become synonymous with beauty, glamour and sex! Originally popularized by it's use to describe Jean Harlow (who starred in the 1933 film Bombshell), it's now commonly used to describe any voluptuous, female sex symbol. It's especially linked to blondes. The image of a "Blonde Bombshell"; roller-set hair, luscious red lipstick and artfully applied liquid liner, is inexplicably linked to Marilyn Monroe, whose timeless beauty inspired decades of glaMOUR!

Jean Harlow

 Lana Turner

Marilyn Monroe

Mamie Van Doren

Jayne Mansfield

Diana Dors

 

Candy Darling

Madonna
 

 
Amanda Lepore

Eva Herzigova

Drew Barrymore

Nadja Auermann

Anna Nicole Smith

Gwen Stefani

Christina Aguilera 

Scarlet Johanssen 

Lady GaGa


 I created this recipe as a birthday gift for one of my favorite blonde bombshells, my friend; the lovely Amanda Lepore! Her trademark succulent red lips, predilection for champagne and unapologetic glamour are legendary! Here is my latest Delight, inspired by the bombshell in us all:

Champagne Kiss Cookies

Bombshell blonde sugar cookie with starlet red champagne icing

Lip Smackin' Good!

Ingredients 

* 3 cups all-purpose flour

* 1 teaspoon baking powder

* 1 teaspoon salt

* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

* 1 cup sugar

* 1 egg, at room temperature

* 1 tablespoon Half & Half, at room tempurature

* 1 teaspoon Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure vanilla extract

 Icing

* 4 cups (1 box) confectioners sugar, sifted

* 3 tablespoons meringue powder

* 1/2 teaspoon Lorann Champagne Flavor

* 1/2 teaspoon Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure vanilla extract

* 1 tablespoon red food color

* 6 tablespoons warm water

Directions

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg, half & half, and vanilla and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with flour. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with flour, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on a non-stick baking sheet and bake for 7 to 8 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack.

For the icing, beat all ingredients until peaks form (7-10) minutes at low speed with an electric mixer fitted with a whip attachment. To thin icing for dipping/pouring, add 1 tablespoon water per cup of icing and stir slowly. Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Decorate as desired.

Makes 24 cookies.

photos by Veronica iBarra

Brought to you in association with La Bella Memoria

Darling Delight: Blonde Lorelei Coconut Cupcakes recipe inspired by Marilyn Monroe!

For the Blonde Lorelei Coconut Cupcake recipe scroll down or click here!

Nothing is more iconically blonde than Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, specifically the 1953 film starring Marilyn Monroe as the ditzy, gold digging bombshell Lorelei Lee. Based on the best selling 1925 book by Anita Loos, the plot revolves around two glamourous, NYC showgirls on a cruise ship to Paris and their search for sugar daddies, designer clothes and diamonds (not rhinestones)!

Mmmmmmmmarilyn!!

Diamonds R A Gurls BFF!

The original design sketch by Bill Travilla
 

The image of Marilyn wearing the hot pink satin dress during her performance of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" has become just as legendary as Marilyn herself. Yet it wasn't the original costume design! Costume designer Bill Travilla had originally planned on a fishnet body stocking dripping with diamonds. However, two days before the scene was to be shot, Marilyn's pre-fame nude photographs surfaced in the press and the studio rejected the design for fear it would cause even more scandal and drama! Travilla had to hustle to create a more tasteful option. Sometimes the best creative ideas happen under pressure!

 

The "scandalous" original look

Marilyn's look in this scene has managed to stand the test of time and nearly 60 years later, it continues to be ultra-sexy and flawless. An interesting bit of fashion trivia: the dress was actually made of satin covered felt, which was extremely stiff and yet Marilyn moves like she's wearing weightless silk.....WERK!

 

Madonna borrowed it for her "Material Girl" video in 1985

Anna Nicole Smith worked it for PETA in 2004

Kylie Minogue knocked it off for a live TV performance in 1999

 Miss Piggy OF COURSE couldn't resist lampooning it (and Madonna) for the fall 1985 issue of Muppet Magazine


Even I got in on the action for Halloween in 1995!

As a way to pay homage to this classic blonde fashion moment, I have created something VERY special:

The Blonde Lorelei Cupcake

 platinum blonde coconut cake with hot pink satin frosting and accessorized with sugar diamonds.

Rich, expensive and DELICIOUS!!

Ingredients:

* 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature,
* 2 cups sugar
* 6 large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 teaspoon Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure vanilla extract
* 1/4 teaspoon Frontier Natural Flavors coconut flavor
* 2 tablespoons coconut rum, at room temperature
* 3 cups cake flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk, at room temperature
* 1/2 cup heavy cream

For the frosting:

* 1 8 oz package cream cheese, at room temperature
* 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 1 teaspoon Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure vanilla extract
* 5 drops Lorann Champagne Flavor
* 8-10 drops hot pink food color
* 1 box confectioners' sugar, sifted
* edible sugar diamonds, for garnish

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with black foil cupcake papers.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light yellow and fluffy. You can NEVER beat the butter/sugar too much. Crack the eggs into a small bowl. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl once during mixing. Add the vanilla extract, coconut flavoring and rum. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the coconut milk/cream to the batter in 3 parts, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whip attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, champagne flavoring and food color on low speed. Add the confectioners' sugar and increase the speed to high , mixing until very light and fluffy.

Garnish with sugar diamonds. Serve with expensive champagne!

Makes 24 cupcakes