Following on from the Cake and Bake show, I met up with my sister and Verity for a cookie date to put our newly acquired knowledge in to practise. Not wanting to miss out on cookies, Mr Chris tagged along and even had a go himself.


Rachel's recipe produced a huge number of cookies giving us plenty to practise on. 

I can't take any credit for the baking as Verity was chief baker, but the cookies tasted great. They had a nice buttery flavour with a slight hint of vanilla, a nice crispy edge and a crumbly centre. I have a weakness for biccies so mine didn't last long at all. 

We used the "flooding" technique to cover our cookies. With this technique you use a slightly firmer icing to pipe a dam around the outline of the cookie, and then a runnier consistency to fill it in.

When piping the outline Rachel taught us to lift the icing bag away from the cookie and let the icing just fall on to it. This really helps but still requires some practise. We used a #1 tip for the outline but it was very fine. I'd probably try a #2 tip next time.

After piping the outline wait at least 15 minutes for it to dry before "flooding" the cookie. For this we used a #4 tip. Fill the inside of the cookie, then give it a gentle shake to help smooth the surface. You can use a cocktail stick to help fill any gaps. 

At this point you can add more colours if you want them to sit together, or wait for the surface to dry and then pipe on top.

Can you spot Mr Chris' cookie? :)

Rachel's cookie recipe:
400g Flour
200g Butter
200g Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Beat together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla essence and combine, then gradually add the flour. Chill the dough for 15 minutes before rolling it out and cutting shapes. Cook at 170 degrees for 10 minutes until lightly golden.

Royal Icing recipe:
250g Icing Sugar
1 Egg White
1 tsp lemon juice

Whisk the egg white until it begins to froth, gradually add the icing sugar followed by the lemon juice.

In the past I have struggled to get the right consistency with Royal Icing, switching back and forth between adding more water, then adding more icing sugar. Rachel gave us a few tips to help us get it right:

• It is harder to thicken icing by adding more icing sugar then it is to thin it. It is also very easy to add too much water so add a light misting of water at a time by using a spray bottle.
• The 10 second rule - To check the consistency of your icing, dip a spoon in to it and then lift it out allowing ribbons of icing to fall back in to the bowl. If the icing is the right consistency the surface of the icing should become smooth again in 5-10 seconds.
• If the icing is too thick it will curl back over the icing tip when trying to pipe it.

Take a look at this tutorial on Sweetopia for some excellent step by step instructions and techniques for decorating cookies. I love these beautiful butterfly cookies, I think I'll have to try them myself some time.