Iced sugar cookies - wedding favour practise

I'm not brilliant at piping, and ive never tried piping royal icing but i really want to make iced cookied as my wedding favours so i figured id better brush up my skills!

The cookies are these amazing chocolate sugar cookies by sprinkle bakes (theyre so good that 4 cookies didnt make it to the photo opp!) and i followed this icing tutorial by the ever wonderful annie's eats

 

Initially i tried piping with just a plastic piping bag, no special tip, just the end cut off the bag and this wasnt great. The bag makes quite a flat stream of icing, not what i was looking for. I also made the icing slightly too thick. I found if it was super thick the tension of squeezing the bag make me go wonky. So second time around (blue icing) i used a proper metal piping tip, approx 2mm hole, and thinner icing and it was so much easier. I think i might have gone slightly the other way and made the blue icing too thin, as it spread more than i wanted, but it was still a better effect than previously. Next time i just need to pay really close attention to the icing thickness, thats the most important thing...

I also need to check whether the un-iced cookies freeze well, if they do then theyre definitely my wedding favour cookies!

Caramel stuffed choc chip cookies

Nom! I made two types of caramel stuffed chocolate chip cookies this weekend. They were gifts and to be honest they nearly didnt make it to their recipients!

I used my go to two twenty one recipe for the regular choc chip cookies and just stuffed a caramel button in the middle - so good!

The double choc chip ones are a recipe from top with cinnamon. These inspired the whole baking episode and they didnt disappoint!

I popped then in a little tub and tied it all up with ribbon and (reluctantly) gifted them out

Homemade Party Rings

 

Party rings were my absolute favourite when i was a kid and when i saw these beauties on pinterest i knew i wanted to make grown up one. I used this recipe for the biscuits and then topped them with 4 different toppings. Dulce leche icing (dulce leche, water and icing sugar), lemon curd, white glace icing with coconut and pink glace icing with hundreds and thousands. All were fab, my favourite was the dulce leche but the lemon curd ones went the quickest!

Oat Biscuits/Cookies

We had a family lunchtime party recently and i made some biscuits for everyone to nibble on in the afternoon. I used this recipe by Created by Diane but reduced the amount of icing to just a drizzle and made some chocolate drizzled ones too. They were lovely, a bit like flapjacks but in biscuit form, definitely a winner :)

Ice cream sandwiches

I loved ice cream sandwiches as a kid - who didnt! But they were usually made with wafer not biscuits and as ive been seeing biscuit based one all over pinterest i had to give them a go!
I used this recipe by Smitten Kitchen and used my homemade cookies and cream ice cream and they were amazing! Very rich so id might make half sized ones next time but they definitely lived up to my childhood memories!

Cookies and Cream ice cream

More ice cream! I used the same easy recipe as for my Caramel and Chocolate Ice Cream but this time i added crushed up chocolate biscuits to the mix - delicious!
I used the biscuits from my ice cream sandwich and then used this ice cream in the middle! It was v. rich but amazing!

Biscuits and boxes

My mum was on holiday at the same time as lovely BM and I so my aunts kindly stepped in to make sure my dad was ok while we were all off enjoying ourselves! (NB. my dad has health issues which makes flying and being away from home stressful for him (and us) so hes prefers to holiday at home, we didnt exclude him deliberately!) So as a thankyou i thought i would make my aunts some biscuits.

The biscuits are an amazing chocolate sable from Smitten Kitchen which were just ridiculously delicious! And i thought they deserved theyre own special packaging too

I made a double walled box (where the walls all tuck in on themselves to make a much nicer visible edge) and little slip cover (i used this free pattern by Mel Stampz for the slip cover)

I wrapped the cookies in greaseproof paper to keep them protected and made it look a bit more finished

A pretty cute little thankyou gift i think!

Chocolate chip cookies

I've changed roles at work (hence the absence from blogging as thats been taking up my time) and to say goodbye to the lovely folks in my old department i made them some cookies

The recipe is by Two Twenty One and theyre amazing! Chewy and soft and just delicious, cant recommend them enough :)

Cookies!

I fell in love with i kats bag's little fabric cookies making kit when i saw it on her blog, and its one of my friend's little girls 3rd birthday next week so i couldnt resist making it for her! I changed it slightly from i kat's version, i added a baking tray as well and made it all into a roll, tied with ribbon and I love how it turned out :). Hope the birthday girl likes it too!

Granny Hunter's Chocolate Chip Cookies

My gran made the most wonderful cookies, theyre like shortbread but with chocolate!!
Here's her original recipe - enjoy :)

Granny Hunter's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
4oz margarine
2oz caster sugar
few drops vanilla essence
5oz plain flour
pinch salt
2oz dark chocolate chips

Method
Grease a baking sheet
Cream together margarine, sugar and essence in a bowl
Stir in the flour, salt and chocolate chips
Put heaped dessertspoonfuls onto the baking sheet
Bake for 10-15 mins at 190C (375C) or gas mark 5
They will be light coloured golden brown when cooked

My sisters birthday presents!

Sunday was my lovely big sisters birthday, it sucks having a birthday so soon after Christmas and she lives on the other side if the world to me in Melbourne so I always try and make a lot of effort with her presents. Normally what I buy/make is restricted by size and weight or I end up spending a fortune on postage! But this year our mum is going to visit so I can send some stuff with her
This year I posted her this gorgeous owl calendar that I downloaded and printed from My Owl Barn and I bought the cute union jack peg magnets from eBay (I like to remind her she's British on a regular basis!)

With the owl calendar I sent her this recipe for gingerbread bears with a cute little bear cutter (sorry for the terrible photo, which actually has a deer cutter instead of a bear as posted this before I had a chance to take a photo and had to recreate it at home later!)

I just printed the recipe (customised from this recipe) on thick card, punched some heart shaped holes in the bottom and tied the bear cutter with cute orange ribbon. Hopefully she'll make some biscuits and send me photos so I can post them on here

I've also sent her (via our mums suitcase) a framed papercut which I forgot to photo! (Hopefully my mum or sister will send me a picture of that too!). I made it on my Make Lounge paper cut course, which was excellent, and is of a moustache with 'monsieur' cut out underneath!
And finally this beautiful airmail notecard set from Present and Correct which I thought was perfect since we have such a long distance relationship!



Happy birthday sis xx love you lots xxx