Valentine's Day Cookies

You are my Love bug

I loved the muah cookies so much that I went ahead and made a whole bunch of Valentine's Day Cookies that are on sale via my baking outfit - The Dessert Island. The response to my V-day cookies were so great that I thought why not share them here as well? As always, my designs are simple are something that anyone with an eye for cookie decorating can attempt. I always prefer cheeky and fun V'day cookies/msg's than the sappy ones, so my cookies reflect that, barring a few :) No tutorial this time on these, since this is a just drool post. But I do hope to get your feedback on them. 

So here goes, the one you see on the top is aptly titled you are my love bug and they remind me of the love bug/lady bird cupcakes I had made and shared on my blog a year ago. You can see that post here..

The next on the list is one that is my fav and I call him Mr Lova Lova. The Casanova of the pack, you can't resist falling in love with him... Perfect for those who want to take him home or to gift to your special someone... Side effects include swooning and Shaggy's song playing in your head on repeat. Say it with me, Mr lova lova ♪ ♫ ♩...

Mr Lova Lova

The next one was inspired by one of my favorite songs while growing up. "Though we gotta say goodbye for the summer, but darling I promise you this, I'll send you all my love, everyday in a letter, sealed with a kiss..." 

Black Sheep Cookies

Counting sheep?

I love decorating cookies. Till a while ago, cookies to me conjured up images of either standard cookie-shaped biscuits or plain round mounds of yummness, occasionally spattered with chocolate chips, fruits etc. But all that changed the day I discovered cookies decorated with royal icing. Soon I realised cookies can be a work of art by themselves. 
While mine are nowhere near art, yet, I do manage to have fun with them and hope to inspire you to do the same. I recently joined a group on FB that gets all 'black sheep' together in a forum. The ones who paved their own path, didn't go with the flow and followed their heart. Admit it, we all have a bit of a black sheep in us :) If you think you are a fellow black sheep, do join the group on FB here
For the very first meet (oh the stories and people, I felt more grey than black compared to some of the amazing people I met and their adventures :) ), I wanted to bake the members something. Any excuse to try and make something yum I tell you :)
I wanted to make cupcakes and decorate them as black sheep, but kept that for another day thanks to transport issues. So cookies they were and I came up with this:

Black beauties

 You can personalize your cookies any way you want. For instance, I used a basic sugar cookie recipe and baked the cookies. After that, all I did was flood the cookies in black Royal icing (recipe here) and then once it dried, I piped white dots on the edges and the lettering to commemorate the event. You need not be a piping expert for flooding and dots. The text requires a lil bit of practice, but if I can do it with no training whatsoever, so can you :)
Happy cookie decorating folks. 

Eye Candy

'Eye' got candy

I have been wanting to do a step by step tutorial for long now but kept pushing it off for lack of time. Today, I decided to stop procrastinating and get down to it. Today, I am going to show you'll something that is very simple to make and so versatile in its uses. I came across this idea a long time ago, but it wasn't until I got an order for them that I got down to doing it. This is a great exercise that you can indulge in, come summer, with your kids as they will have a good time making them and an even greater time playing with them, of course, most of them will end up in their tummies before going on dessert projects :)
So without further ado, here they are. I have used them on smiley cookies, but their applications are endless. After all, a couple of baby blue eyes can up the aww factor of almost anything. 
First, lets get started with the basic recipe for the icing. I use royal icing as it sets hard and lasts for a long time, some, almost a year if stored properly. I used the basic recipe found on Joy of Baking and tweaked it a little to suit me. You can experiment with the host of recipes available online once you get comfortable with it. I prefer to use meringue powder rather than raw egg whites as many debate the factor of raw egg whites containing food-borne pathogens such as salmonella. Better safe than sorry right. Here's the recipe for the Royal Icing:

Ingredients:

1. One cup icing sugar
2. 3/4 tablespoon Meringue powder
3. One teaspoon vanilla extract
4. 1/4 cup warm water 
5. Food colouring in baby blue and black

Blue-eyed treats

Method:

• Whisk the sugar and meringue powder.
• Add the vanilla extract and the water, bit by bit, whisking as you do so.  (Even though the recipe calls for 1/4 cup of water, you might need much lesser depending on the consistency, so add a little at a time)
• Beat the mixture on medium speed for about 5 to 6 minutes. You will notice that the consistency is runny at first, but stiffer as you beat.
• You can test if the icing is ready by using the ten second rule. You do so by lifting the whisker and letting the icing drop back into the bowl in ribbons. If the surface of the mixture becomes smooth in 10 seconds, you are good to go. If it is quicker than ten seconds, the icing is too runny and you need to add more icing sugar and if it is much longer, add a bit more water. 
• Divide the icing in batches and colour them accordingly.  You will need more white, a little less blue and much lesser black.
• Fill them into your individual piping bags. I use butter paper, roll them into cones and pipe away, but you can use various icing tips available. Make sure it has a small round opening for this recipe. Here's an example of a good tip from Wilton.
• Line your counter with butter/parchment paper and start piping like so:

Leave the candy eyes on the counter-top to dry. They might take anywhere from 4 hours to a day or so depending on the humidity of the area you are in. Once they are completely dry, peel them off carefully and store them in an airtight container. To attach them to cookies, dab a tiny dot of royal icing on the backside of the cookies and stick them where you want. 

For instance, for the smiley face cookies, flood the cookies with your choice of coloured royal icing, once they dry, attach the eyes, pipe out smiles, a nose and eyelashes if you please and there you have it, a smiley face cookie.Experiment with consistencies according to your design.