Love cookies

Here are some super easy heart cookies I made for my work colleagues to celebrate Valentine's Day. You can use any colour combinations, or any shape - such a fun recipe to play around with. If you want to make some here's what you need:

Ingredients (makes about 30 medium sized cookies):

• 120g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 650g plain flour
• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tbsp skimmed milk
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 medium eggs
• 300g caster sugar
• Pink food colouring (optional)

Method:
Melt chocolate in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water or in the microwave. Be careful not to cook the chocolate!

In a large bowl, combine the flour, eggs, butter, milk, baking powder and caster sugar. Beat the ingredients until well-blended with an electric mixer or spoon, occassionally scraping the bowl with the rubber spatula. Take out half the dough and colour with pink food colouring (or leave plain if you want). Roll the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film then refrigerate until the dough is firm enough to handle (normally about an hour, or 20 mins ni the freezer).
 
Mix the melted chocolate into the remaining dough until blended. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate until firm.
 
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Once the dough is firm enough to work with, roll it out on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin and use a medium-sized heart cutter to make pink and brown hearts. Remove the centres of the hearts with a slightly smaller heart cutter, then fill them again with the opposite coloured small heart.  Place the cookies on the baking trays a few centimetres apart to allow for spreading, then bake for about 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool before eating. You can store any leftover cookies in an airtight container for about 2 weeks.....

Happy Baking xx

Happy Valentine's Day

To celebrate the Valentine's Day I thought I'd share with you some kitchen lovelies that I adore.

First up is this lovely heart shaped wooden spoon. Also available as a set of salad servers, what a perfect way to dish up a special meal with love.

Next up are these sweet measuring cups:

and this little heart-shaped frying pan - so cute!

Who could resist these pink doilies

Or this cake stand:

Lastly, what better way to make sure you don't mess up your clothes while you are baking than to wear this delightful apron:



All these items are so lovely, I'll definitely be adding them to my wishlish.

Have a lovely day xx

Pastel Cookies

Last weekend I made a quick batch of cookies to test out my new ovens to make sure they bake evenly. Here's a sample of some of the cookies - they are just plain sugar cookies decorated with royal icing in pastel colours.

And here they are all together ready to take into work for my colleagues.......

Stay tuned for more baking ventures soon!

Huggies

I love these cup-hugging cookie cutters from Cox &Cox. The cutters come in a set of three (either stars, hearts or butterflies) and have a little slit in them to allow you to hang the cookie on the rim of a cup or mug. Such a great idea! The good news is you can even make these cup-hugging cookies - or 'huggies' as I like to call them - by cutting a slot into any small shape with a knife. Here's my attempt using small heart and flower cookie cutters......

So easy, yet so effective......

Happy baking xx

Easter Tree

I recently bought a gorgeous mould from Great Impressions of leaping bunnies, which I thought would be perfect to make chocolates with for Easter.


I made the bunnies with white chocolate, and then also made some hearts with chocolate coloured with pink food colouring. After they had set (about 1 hour later), I individually wrapped them in cellophane and hung them on a branch I painted white.


To finish off the tree I hung painted wooden easter eggs onto the other branches, then stood the branch in a vase filled with sugar. The tree is so pretty and makes a lovely centre piece on a table.

To continue with the Easter festivities, I made some chocolate cupcakes decorated with mini easter eggs. So simple and so delicious....


Happy Easter x

And some more gingerbread

The baking marathon continues......I made some more gingerbread hearts and mini men today as a Christmas gift for some friends. I took the opportunity to practice my piping skills by decorating the cookies with piped lines, dots and simple designs. Here's how they turned out...


I had a lot of fun staging a Christmas scene with the mini gingerbread men around my little Christmas tree.......they are just so cute :)

Merry Christmas!!

More Gingerbread

I've been on a gingerbread baking spree over the past few days. Here are some simple cookies I made for my work colleagues. I used snowflake, reindeer and heart cookie cutters, then decorated the cookies with piped royal icing.

If you want to make some, here is the recipe. They are really simple to make!

Gingerbread (makes about 24 cookies)

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (~110g)
• 2 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1/2 cup golden syrup

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C (fan forced). Beat butter, dark brown sugar and egg yolk in a bowl with an electric hand mixer until smooth and all ingredients are well combined. Stir in golden syrup, sifted flour, biocarbonate of soda, ginger and mixed spice in two batches to ensure all ingredients are mixed together properly. If the dough is slightly crumbly, add a little more golden syrup.

Knead the dough on a floured surface then roll it out to approximately 5mm in thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, then transfer cookies to lined baking trays. The cookies do not spread too much during baking, however it is best to ensure the cookies are evenly spaced on the tray. Bake thems for about 15 minutes until they are light brown in colour, before placing them on wire racks to cool. Cookies will harden once cool and can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Decorate with royal icing if desired.

Happy baking x