School Cookies - Pencil Sharpeners

If you know me, you know that I like to be prepared - I don't just wing it.
There's not enough time in the week for winging. (And there's not enough serotonin in my brain to deal with chaos!)
But over-preparedness can be a problem, too.  When I bake cookies for classes,  I do it at the beginning of the week (...being well-prepared, you know!).
However, that means that I might over-cater for the classes by the time the final numbers are in.

What do I do with the extra cookies?
Unlike me, they're good at chilling...

And by that I mean that they go into the freezer, until I can find another use for them.

 Sometimes their fate is to be ground up (sorry cookies!) to be used as bases for cheesecake or tarts; but sometimes they actually get decorated.

These were left-over from the "Too Cool for School" class we did in May.  And now they're going to be super-cool at a school cake sale.

This also gives me an opportunity to share a quick tutorial on making the sharpener, that I intended as a post back in May, but didn't get around to writing up (busy as I was, baking all those unwanted extra cookies...😉)

Pencil Sharpener Cookies

If you don't have a pencil sharpener cutter, improvise by using a rectangle cutter
- cut in half if it's a large rectangle
- and trim the sides with a round or oval cutter...

To decorate 

-  Pipe half the metal inner with grey royal icing; leave to dry, then pipe the other half. Add a dot. 

  (This creates that textural distinction between the two side.) 

- Outline and flood the rest of the shape with your colour of choice. 

- Once the grey area is completely dry, brush on silver lustre dust. 

 

And while we're talking about freezing cookies -
When you thaw biscuits, if they need crisping up, simply place them in a warm oven (50'C) with the thermofan on, and they'll be good to go in a few minutes.

Happy decorating!

xxM