Monday, 27 September 2010

Decorated Sugar Cookies Daring Bakers September 2010


The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.
Of course there was a condition, we had to make a cookie decoration acording the Sepember theme.
And as it was Ganesh Chaturthi a Hindu Festival and I was seeing so much post every where
about the festival and what they made, and I got inspired to make these Elephant cookies.
Ofcourse as Shyama is going awayto college I made heart shape and then it was so fun in cutting the cookies I did buterfly etc.....
Shyama helped me to decorate a she is far more better ( I must say when it comes to drawing that girl have talent, when ever there is free time she starts painting etc) .

Basic Sugar Cookies:Makes Approximately 36x 10cm / 4" Cookies
200g / 7oz / ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour
200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
5ml / 1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Directions• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becomingcreamy in texture.• Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread duringbaking, losing their shape.•
Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.•

Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoidflour flying everywhere.• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.•

Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for anhour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time andthen it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.•

Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.•
Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.•

Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.•

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.•
Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result insome cookies being baked before others are done.•
Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.• Leave to cool on cooling racks.• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.•

Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decoratedcookies can last up to a month.
Royal Icing:
315g – 375g / 11oz – 13oz / 2½ - 3 cups Icing / Confectioner’s / Powdered Sugar, unsifted
2 Large Egg Whites
10ml / 2 tsp Lemon Juice
5ml / 1 tsp Almond Extract, optional

Directions
• Beat egg whites with lemon juice until combined.•

Tip: It’s important that the bowls/spoons/spatulas and beaters you use are thoroughly cleaned andgrease free.• Sift the icing sugar to remove lumps and add it to the egg whites.•

Tip: I’ve listed 2 amounts of icing sugar, the lesser amount is good for a flooding consistency, and the larger amount is for outlining, but you can add even more for a much thicker consistency good for writing. If you add too much icing sugar or would like to make a thinner consistency, add very small amounts of water, a few drops at a time, until you reach the consistency you need.•

Beat on low until combined and smooth.•

Use immediately or keep in an airtight container.• Tip: Royal Icing starts to harden as soon as it’s in contact with air so make sure to cover containers with plastic wrap while not in use.


Decorating Your Cookies:

Flooding“Flooding” a cookie is a technique used when covering a cookie with Royal Icing.1. You outline the area you want to flood which helps create a dam2.

Then fill or flood inside the area you’ve outlined

69 comments:

  1. Wowwwww soo cute, elegant and beautiful sugar cookies...awesome work..

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  2. Wow!!! Awesome cookies Finla!!! Soo cute :)

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  3. WOW those cookies luk so beautiful :) awesome

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  4. they look super cute...love the elephants. will make these this christmas for my son.

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  5. I salute your patience Finla for such minute details on these cute little goodies. Lovely and colorful.

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  6. woww..awesome...those elephant cookies are amazing.. happy ganesh chathurthi HC.. :) snaps are amazing..

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  7. So cute cookies! I love the colors and drawings Shyama made!

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  8. Looks yumm and delicious !! cute cute cute :)


    Lavanya

    www.lavsblog.com

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  9. Your cookies are absolutely beautiful. Love the bright colours. Ganesha would have been happy. :)

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  10. Wow wow wow everything looks very pretty and cute...

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  11. superb icing dear.... cookies looks superb.... fantastic clicks....

    http://akilaskitchen.blogspot.com

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  12. Your cookies are so beautiful! The colors, the shapes, the detailed decoration, I love it all!

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  13. I absolutely love your cute decorations :)

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  14. Wow lovely decorative cookies....those cute lil elephants are so so cute

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  15. C U T E ... lovely lovely lovely Finla, just beautiful! You are too cool lady! {PS I knew you would connect with Rosie...sigh}
    HUGS my friend!!

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  16. So cute and colorful! great job!

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  17. Awesome cookies !My son loved the elephant ones! pointed and said 'hacchi!, hacchi' ( he loves all things elephant - bus- truck these days)and he was thrilled to see these :)

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  18. Aww, those elephants are so, so super cute! Your daughter and you did a great job!

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  19. Lovely cookies! I love their Indian-like patterns and colors.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  20. OMG, how pretty is that. They are so beautiful, how did you even eat them ?

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  21. I love the way you decorated your cookies, the elephants are my favorite. Great job!

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  22. Awasome cookies and looks soooo cute...cant take my eyes from those cute lil butterflies!!

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  23. Such cute cookies! I love your detail and bright colors. Nice job on the challenge!

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  24. Wow..these cookies look too good to eat...u really have a lot of patience to decorate these soooo beautifully...Really Nice.

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  25. colorful and so very attractive cookies.

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  26. oooo''soo cute, colorful and yummy looking cookies. Excellent!

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  27. Great job! Your icing has such fantastic vibrancy! And good job piping!

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  28. That's amazing how you have decorated your cookies! Nice!

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  29. These are sooo pretty Finla, love them! Wishing your daughter the very best in college.

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  30. wow! your elephants and butterflies are gorgeous! well done with the decorating! so creative ^_^

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  31. I'm so impressed with these fabulous looking sugar cookies, they're so beautifully decorated. Congratulations.

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  32. They are so lovely that I would even hesitate eating them :-)

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  33. Lovely cookies. Gorgeous colours too. Great work!

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  34. lovely cookies..luv 2 hav some!

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  35. They look so darn cute..lovely colors!

    US Masala

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  36. I love your colourful cookies! I'm glad that you and your daughter had a fun time making them together.

    Thank you for taking part of the September challenge :)

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  37. All your cookies are soo adorable and cute :) And the colours? Stunning! Really amazing work on these :)

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  38. Oh these are so adorable, love them!

    Maria
    x

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  39. Oh wow, your cookies are absolutely beautiful! I love the shapes and designs

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  40. Cookies looks awesome..nicely presented.

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  41. Such cute elephants, love the colors. Way to go....I found your site through daring bakers.

    www.cuminandcardamom.blogspot.com

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  42. Hi Finla,

    Awesome...amazing cookies..couldnot find google connect..What is with this gogole connect..Many a places it's causing problems!!

    Dr.Sameena@

    www.myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com

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  43. I love your colourful cookies and their beautiful designs! The small elephants are soooo darn cute!!

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  44. Love the elephants! Great colours on your cookies!

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  45. U re dam creative, elephant is cute (Gosh how many elephants have u had?)

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  46. whoa....these look so beauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutiful!

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  47. Awesome !!!! Love royal icing and hats off for your patience

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  48. They are so sweet, so pretty! Rather like those ethnic, handmade keepsakes you get when you go visiting some place - which, of course, they are :)

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  49. I loveed your cookies the minute I saw them on the forums! Beautiful, beautiful is all I could keep saying. I put a link on my post to your cookies, I hope you don't mind.

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  50. Now, those are the best ones I've seen yet! I love the decoration! So original and beautiful.

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  51. Your cookies are incredibly beautiful!

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  52. Elegant and beautiful cookies..awesome.

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  53. These look absolutely lovely!sooo cute . lovely work dear Happy Cook!
    gloria

    Im in love of the elephants! alway love them!

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  54. Oh my! Those are just too pretty to be eaten!
    Thank you for checking in on me- have been a little busy since we moved into our new home. I've also lost all interest in blogging. :-)

    Hope you're doing fine.

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  55. I love your blog and would like to give you the Lovely Blog Award. Please pull the award from my site. I will be posting about it soon. Keep up the good work. Love your recipes.

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  56. Goodness me, These are the most beautiful decorated cookies I've seen around.

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  57. wow, those cookies are so tempting...! so you both had a fun time decorating them... :)

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  58. Oh my goodness,I don't know how I missed this post,very very beautiful post,you and shyama has lots of patience to do all these decorations! Very pretty!

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  59. Hey, I just saw the elephants on FB, the butterflies look so beautiful too. with kids I don't get time to blog hop but today I made it a point to visit all my old buddies:)

    You have done an awesome work!

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  60. oh my! cookies look so adorable...

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