Thursday, 3 January 2013

Butterfly Cookies

I bought a magazine called Taarten Decoreren for €1,50 which had some lovely cake & cookie recipes, butterfly cookie cutters and even a cardboard cake stand. Bargain!

I've never actually tried making royal icing before and you know what, it is not that hard.
Given that it was my first attempt I will admit that the cookies were not perfect. Plus I had to double everything and that always adds a level of complexity...
It was Heidi's turn to treat at the class 'theekransje' a.k.a tea party before the christmas holidays.
Luckily the group of 4 and 5 year old kids that ate them were impressed.

I made them very late at night and the photo's I took were terrible... but you get the idea. I made soft pink and baby blue butterflies with light green centres.

It is Heidi's birthday in January and I'm very tempted to try them again!























Digital frame graphic from Maybemej.

Here is a link to the magazine website.

Here is copy of the recipe from the first edition of the magazine just in case I lose the paper based one:


Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe (yields 18 - 20 cookies)

Ingredients:
125 gr butter
125 gr caster sugar
1 medium sized egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
250 gr flour

Beat the sugar and butter well, mix in the egg and the vanilla extract, sift the flour into the mixture bit by bit until it is mixed well and a dough has formed, knead until soft.
Wrap the dough in glad wrap and let it cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Roll out the dough until about 4mm thick and cut out butterfly shaped cookies.
Place the cookies on a sheet covered with baking paper and bake in the oven for about 10 - 15 minutes until golden. Let them cool down completely before decorating.

Royal Icing
Ingredients:
500 gr icing sugar
2 medium sized egg whites
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Sieve the icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Now add the egg whites and the lemon juice and beat the mixture well. Beat it for about 6 - 7 minutes with a hand mixer or 5 minutes in your kitchen machine on low speed.
The mixture should have a nice shine to it. If you think it is too dry then add a little lemon juice and beat for a few more minutes. It should be quite a thick mixture with stiff peaks (you can always thin it later!). Now place it in an airtight container with a damp cloth over the icing, close lid well to ensure it does not dry out. It should keep up to 5 days in the fridge - remember to beat it before use.

I will not attempt to tell you how to do the piping... but if you got this far then I think you'll figure it out. First pipe an outline and then thin the icing so that it becomes more runny so that you can fill in the remainder of the surface.

Practise makes perfect!



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