Get Creative!
The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.
The theme was “September”. It may have been back to school; the start of Spring or Autumn/Fall depending where we are in the world; September could also be someone special’s birthday or even the beginning of our favourite sporting season. Whatever happens in our life in September, that’s what our cookies had to be about.
September is Springtime in New Zealand, so I purchased a couple of flower cookie cutters and set about making flower themed sugar cookies. Piping is something I’ve not done much of and it is definitely a challenge for me – guess it’s one of those things where practice makes perfect and patience is an asset.
Sugar cookies aren’t really that big of a thing in New Zealand, mostly seen at Christmas time. I think they are starting to be more popular. Early on in the challenge someone posted a link to a site called University of Cookie http://www.universityofcookie.com/ , which is amazing but made me feel pretty overwhelmed! I can see that this is a real big deal in the U.S and when I have more time I will watch the video tutorials on that site, there is also a stream on flickr.com where there are literally thousands of photos of the most amazing decorated sugar cookies – stumbled across it and now can’t find it again.
These are my attempts at decorated sugar cookies – I learned that it is best to tint/colour all the royal icing before thickening or thinning it to get a consistent colour – hence my two tone pink flower cookies.!
