Christmas Cookies Part 2

And then there was one! One day left of 2019, and still so many things to do before the end of the year!
In all reality, most of them can wait. But not this last post on Christmas cookies.
 It would be anathema to me to be talking Christmas after the 1st of Jan (yes, the tree is already down and all the ornaments are packed away. We start the New Year  without having the depressing business of clearing up Christmas decorations hanging over our heads. And by we, I mean me - because while the kids are at the age where they gladly decorate the tree, they sure as heck aren't going to help un-decorate it.)

I promised (you may not have noticed, but it didn't slip my mind) that there was a part two to the Christmas cookies from 2019, so here it is...

I constructed the gingerbread men out of a standard gingerbread cutter and a pocket watch cutter - see this post for the technique: http://teacakeandcreate.blogspot.com/2019/11/halloween-zombling-cookies.html

One of my favourites was this tree with the tangled lights, but if you want an even simpler design, try this one: 

(triangular christmas tree from Treat Boutique.)

Aaaand that's a wrap for Christmas 2019 (and for 2019!)

See you in 2020 ;-) 

xxM 

Christmas Cookies 2019

Ok, so I might just be avoiding today's real task of cleaning the house and cooking Christmas Eve dinner But it is also important to get these cookies logged before Christmas 2019 comes and goes, right?!

This was the first time I made Santa and Mrs Claus cookies for a class - I've avoided them before because it's a whole other colour to consider, but I justified making flesh colour by using it for Rudolph's snout too:

I know that some gel colour ranges have a copper colour that works well for skin tones, however

I always use a mix of soft pink and ivory - because that's what I've got! And if you need to neutralise it a little - if it's looking too pink - add a tiny drop of black 

I have more Christmas cookies for 2019 to share - but those pic's are a  different colour scheme, so obviously they require a separate post!

See you then!

xxM 

Christmas Trifle with Champagne and Panna Cotta

Is Christmas Eve a little late to be posting suggestions for Christmas dessert?
It is - especially if, like us, you celebrate on the evening of the 24th!
But there's always next year...

I made this trifle for a celebration dinner we had with friends last week,  because it has been ridiculously hot and a light trifle seemed like the perfect dessert.
The other reason I made it pre-Christmas, is because I know that the family we have coming over this  evening would far rather have cheesecake than trifle....
So  of course I've made a cheesecake (it's a Nutella swirl cheesecake to be precise. I guess I should share that recipe too?!)

But this trifle went down really well, so it is something that I will make again.

Here's a little video that I put together as a summary of the process. 

A couple of additional notes:

 - I used a small cake that I had in the freezer, made with the hot milk vanilla sponge recipe that I use for  basic cupcakes - it makes a great light sponge cake, so it's not just for cupcakes. 

- any vanilla sponge cake or pound cake will do, even un-iced cupcakes. 

- I used a small squeeze bottle to drizzle the champagne over the sponge cake. The cake was moist, not sloshed!

- use this yoghurt panna cotta recipe and omit the berries

-the panna cotta has to be made in two batches because it sets (which is what you want it to do!) , but that does mean you can't put aside half the batch to pour in for the second layer. 

- if you aren't comfortable halving the panna cotta recipe for a small trifle, then pour the remainder of the panna cotta into small glasses and top with berries for extra desserts. 

I hope the rest is  sufficiently explained in the video, if not - feel free to comment with questions below!

Now I need to go and sort out that cheesecake!

Happy Christmas Eve. 💕

xxM

Rainbow Spectrum Cupcakes

Why is it that rainbows make us happy?
We could go scientific and speak about the wonder of prisms reflecting and refracting light.  We could go deep and philosophical and speak about how rainbows symbolise hope and renewal when they appear with the calm after a storm. And that is all true.
But I think our delight in rainbows is simply the  magic of revisiting our childhood excitement at the words - look! there's a rainbow.  It's an ingrained joy.

Now,  what is not a joy is a kitchen full of buttercream, right?
And these cupcakes look like a lot of work, don't they? Imagine all those mixing bowls and filling all those bags with the different coloured icing!

Would you believe me if I told you I only used two bowls and one icing bag and nozzle?!

Believe me!

Here's how to make Rainbow Spectrum Cupcakes... 

Place a small amount of uncoloured buttercream in a bowl (enough to pipe approx. 3 cupcakes).

Add a drop of yellow gel colour. 

Put this yellow icing into a disposable icing bag fitted with the nozzle of your choice.

Pipe three rosettes. 

Return any left over icing to the bowl, and top up with a couple of spoons of plain icing. 

Add a drop of blue colour to the icing, and a drop of green. 

You should have green icing. 

Put this into the same icing bag that you used before. Pipe rosettes. The first couple will have a little bit of yellow on the outsides of the swirls - lovely!

Return any left over green icing to the bowl, and top up with more plain icing. 

Add more blue colour. You'll now have turquoise icing. Put this icing into the bag... 

you're getting the picture?!

You'll probably do one more blue - make it a pure blue, don't use the left over turquoise in this batch. 

After the blue, you are going to add pink gel colour to your bowl of icing (leftover blue, topped up with plain icing) - pink and blue mixed together will make purple. 

Add a little more pink to the icing for the next round, to get a pinker purple. 

After the purple, it's time to change bowls. Discard any leftover purple icing, you'll want a true pink next, but still use the same icing bag. 

...can you see how using the same icing bag adds to the effect? Each of the previous colours can be seen as a trace on the next shade. 

The magic of the colour spectrum... it's really the magic of science!

Happy baking 💕

xxM 

Halloween Zombling Cookies

I called these cookies Zombies, but my son pointed out that they're not - they're more like voodoo doll cookies aren't they? But that idea creeps me out a little too much (i'm not sure why - 'cos I'm not overly sensitive to ghoulishness!).
So I'm calling them zomblings, ok?
Ok!

What I didn't mention when I posted the Sugar Skull Cookies on Instagram and FB, was that those stunning skull cutters, were custom made for me by Treat Boutique. 

Lauri and Brad are always so happy to accommodate my requests for new designs!

But I thought of making these Zombling characters at the last minute, so instead of asking for another new custom design, I created them out of two of Treat Boutiques other cutters instead. 

This is the gingerbread man, and can you guess the other one?

It's a pocket watch - made when we did Alice in Wonderland cookies a few years ago! 

Merge the two cookies together, and bake. 

And look how those cut out bits didn't need to be discarded, they made perfect mini skulls!

Now that's good magic, huh?!

Happy baking!

xxM 

Halloween Cookies 2019

Well, now.... I'm just about a decade behind on cookie posts. But you've seen the clips on Instagram and Facebook, haven't you?
It's been hard to keep up with everything this term. Just this morning I was fantasising about self-driving cars - I could just send the car to fetch the kids from school. But then I'd miss out on that flow of information that comes out when they get in the car. And the chance to connect with other mom's while we're waiting for the children to come out.
There's a new show on Netflix called Living with Your Self. In a Netflix-nutshell, it's about a man who inadvertently clones himself. It gets complicated. But  there's two of him! I could do with another me!
Maybe even three ... one to bake, one to work, one to parent.

Anyhoo...! That's what weekends are for, time to catch up a little. So I may not catalogue all the recent classes. But sticking with the realm of fantasy, let's start with the latest:

Here's the video.....

And here are some of the sugar skulls we decorated ....

and a video for the roses ....

 I decorated more Halloween themed cookies this year than I usually do - many more. I had a lot of purple that I needed to get out of my system.

Which I did....

Happy decorating!

xxM

Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies

If I'm baking cookies these days that aren't for the classes, you must know that it's not me behind the sieve.
My daughter loves baking. (Don't know where she gets it from). And during the school holidays she was determined to make cookies.  I gave her one of my simplest recipes to make completely solo - these three ingredient peanut butter cookies - which she very capably did.
But her brother was super unimpressed because he claims to be allergic to peanuts (he's not). He insisted that we make more cookies just like those, but without peanut butter.
So we made these... chewy on the inside, crunchy on the outside, lots of flavour - but not peanut butter!

And when you're baking with kids, you add chocolate wherever possible, right?

You can omit the chocolate if you want to - the original recipe was just ginger - or you can add even more! Details below...**

Chewy Chocolate and Ginger Cookies

Preheat the oven to 180'C
Prepare 2-3 large cookie trays / baking sheets with baking parchment.
Makes 25-30 cookies, depending on the size you roll.

Ingredients

200g brown sugar*, plus extra for rolling
180g butter, at room temp.
1 egg
30ml golden syrup

300g cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbs ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
100g dark chocolate, grated

*  ideally use 100g light brown sugar, and 100g treacle sugar
** for a more chocolatey experience, omit 20g flour and add 30g unsweetened cocoa.
 

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg. Mix well. Beat in the syrup.
Sift in the dry ingredients, followed by the chocolate. Mix until just combined.

Shape the dough into small balls (approx 3cm diameter), then roll those in sugar.
Place on cookie trays - well spaced - and flatten  gently with a fork.
Bake at 180'C for 8 minutes
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet before taking off from the trays.
The cookies will be soft at first, then crisp up as they cool.

I'm going to give these a bash with oats and coconut too sometime, I'll let you know how that turns out.

Happy baking!

xxM