Toy Story 3 Cookies

I am a huge Toy Story fan, but, who isn't? It was the first animated film that got me interested in movies and how they are made as a kid. In fact, when I went to Walt Disney World two years later, I signed up to take an animation class at the Disney Institute. It was the highlight of my entire trip. As a kid, I was mesmerized with the animation process and hung on every word of the guest speakers for our class. Once I came home, I subsequently spent the next two weeks in my room trying to draw my favorite characters on my new, premium sketch paper.

I stood in line opening night to watch Toy Story 3 with all the other adult fans who had fallen in love with these characters over a decade ago. And, when I was on a weekend vacation in Branson with my boyfriend and his family I just had to make a pit stop at the Disney store. Well, two Disney stores. After walking into the first store, I was struck by the sight of an enormous and over-sized Lotso' Huggin' Bear. But, the sticker shock of $50 made me put him back on the shelf. After we stopped at the second Disney store a few days later and my boyfriend saw my face light up again when I spied that same, lovable, over-sized bear, he knew it was love and bought him for me as a surprise early birthday gift. Though, Lotso wasn't too much of a surprise as once he paid for the bear at the counter, he handed him over immediately as there is no good way to conceal a giant, purple stuffed bear.

So, in honor of my beloved Toy Story 3 characters (I'm lookin' at you, Lotso) I decided to bake and decorate their likeness onto some sugar cookies. This proved slightly harder than first imagined as there are no Toy Story cookie cutters out on the market. This led me to find pictures of them I liked online, size them appropriately, and then cut the dough with a knife, using the printed pictures as stencils.

Here are two of Bonnie's toys you might remember from the movie.