For days I searched the internet for recipes, browsed forums for feedback on recipes, and scoured YouTube for tutorials on …well, truthfully: everything! I admit, I got a bit distracted at times. In fact, I found this pretty strange video on “how not to make bread“….

Ok ok, back to the cookies.

So I found a recipe, bought the ingredients, and got down to baking…the next day. I am the queen of procrastination. I know. Once the cookies were baked, I left them to cool, and watched a few more YouTube videos on decorating with Royal Icing. Then I got to it.

Much to my surprise, it wasnt actually that difficult. Well, possibly the most complicated part, is learning how to make the royal icing, and of course the time spent stressing by the oven wondering if your cookies are baking ok. And of course, not having enough table space to put trays and trays of cookies!

Nontheless, I got on with the job and very quickly had decorated almost 50 cookies. I think I ate a few. I also think “quickly” means a few hours went by.

So, because its such an awesome recipe, and where would I be if others hadn’t shared it, I will share it with you! I didnt at all create these recipes, but I’ll put the South African version as most recipes I find arent in metric conversions.

Sugar Cookies
(source: theauberginechef)

Ingredients:

• 226g granulated sugar
• 450g butter (I used salted, it was cheaper), room temperature!!
• 680g cake flour
• 3 whole eggs

Method:

• 1. Either by hand with a whisk, or preferably in a mixer, cream the butter until soft in the mixer.
• 2. Add all the sugar and cream until light and fluffy on medium speed.
• 3. Add the eggs one at a time until totally incorporated, then scrape the bowl between each addition.
• 4. Stop the mixer and add all the cake flour at once, and incorporate on low speed. Be sure to scrape the bowl. Continue to mix for 1-2 minutes more.
• 5. Remove from bowl and portion out into large discs, about the size of what you would like to roll out.
• 6. Refrigerate to stiffen – approximately 10-15 minutes. (I put mine in the freezer for 10-15min then took what I needed and put the rest in the fridge, taking more as needed)
• 7. Remove from fridge one usable portion at a time and roll out to about 1/2cm inch thickness. Cut out various shapes.
• 8. Bake at 160-176 degrees C for about 8-12 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the cookie.

Royal Icing:
(not sure where I found this recipe, but I tweaked it to suit my own liking)

Ingredients:

• 500g powdered sugar, sifted (icing sugar, sifted)
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 – 1tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp extract/essence (I used lemon flavouring, it was nice and didnt discolour the white icing)

Method:

• Add egg whites, essence, and cream of tarter to mixer with paddle attachment and mix for a few seconds.
• Add half the powdered sugar and mix on low until incorporated.
• Stop and scrape down bowl.
• Add more powdered sugar and mix again on low.
• Stop and scrape down bowl.
• Add remaining powdered sugar and mix on low, then on medium for a minute or two. You should notice it getting whiter by now.
• Voila! You’re done!

Check consistancy:
Run a knife through the icing or drizzle some icing from a spoon back into your icing bowl.
If it covers up/blends within 1-5 seconds, I feel its too runny. Add more sifted powdered sugar.
If it covers up/blends within 5-10 seconds, its great for piping and filling (I prefer it closer to the 10sec mark)
If it covers up/blends within 10-12 seconds, its good for detail work.
Anything over 15 seconds and its too thick, add 1 teaspoon of water and mix. Repeat with caution until consistancy is correct.

Colouring:
Divide icing into bowls, one for each colour you’ll need (use more in the bowls you’ll need more colouring for). Add colouring as needed. If it gets too runny, add a teaspoon or two of sifted sugar and mix well.

Decorating:
Each layer will need an hour or two, if not more, between decorating. I did my piping and flooding on Saturday after baking. Then I did the eyes and details later that night, and I waited a day before packing into the individual packets (I recommend waiting 12-24 hours before packing into packets). The cookies dont go stale cos the royal icing preserves them. Dont put them in a container to dry, leave them out in the open. Containers make them soggy, as does the refrigerator.

Put into piping bags and have at it!

Dont forget to take pics and show me what you’ve made!

Making flapjacks for the rats’ photoshoot this morning! Yum yum! Added bonus is living close to the ‘rents so when you realise you only have 1 egg and no baking powder, its a quick trip over to borrow some!

Of course, I had to make for me too

Before I get started on the main topic of this post, I would like to mention that myself and my bestie were featured (again) on the morning TV show Expresso again two weeks ago! It was awesome fun, and of course, our rats went along too (we were talking about rats as pets)!

Anyway…so at work last week I won a voucher to Woolworths for R1000! I also won another voucher for Woolies for R50, as well as a Camelot Spa voucher for R500 (it was a good day!). Today my mother and I went to see what we could find to purchase with this small fortune.

For the past few weeks, I’ve also being doing a lot of reading up on fondant (the icing that usually is seen on wedding cakes -not the marzipan icing though!) and I wanted to try my hand at making some for a cake. And I wanted to attempt my first two layer cake…maybe even my first two tier cake! So I went out today with my mom and bought some baking utensils (stainless steel measuring cups and spoons to replace my plastic ones, a stainless steel mini whisk and a stainless steeel sieve – all dishwasher safe! Score!) with my voucher as well as the ingredients for Marshmallow Fondant (‘mallows, icing sugar), vanilla buttercream (butter, cream, van essence and icing sugar), and of course, the cake (yea yea, it was box mix!)!

I went to @Home and was seaching around their sale items when I noticed a really nice scraper (for scraping the sides of cakes) for R55! So I bought it and when I was at the til paying for it, they told me it was marked down from (an insane) R230! What a bargain!! I think I was most excited about this purchase haha.

We spent the entire day looking for a simple offset spatula, which we didnt end up finding, so we ended the evening off at Qing Sushi for a nice mixe platter to share.

I got home and promptly started on the fondant process (after I cleaned the kitchen haha). I melted the marshmallows, poured out the icing sugar onto the table and started kneading! Half way through kneading, I realised I didnt add the 4 tablespoons of water to the melted mallows, so I added 1 tablespoon to the mix on the table…not sure how it affected the fondant, but only time will tell I guess. Kneading the fondant was tough! My back is still aching!

Then I made the buttercream, using the Kenwood Chef this time (wasnt sure it could handle the fondant consistancy), which went easier, but still made a bit of a mess (the joys of baking, eh). The buttercream went well and came out quite nice. Will give it another whip tomorrow before using, to make sure its extra creamy.

I’ll post an update tomorrow after the cake is done – hopefully with pics!

Although I’m excited at having climbed on the scale and seen that I was down by exactly one kilogram, I still realise a few factors could have contributed to make it inaccurate, so I’ll only truly get excited when I’m closer to 53 or 52kgs.

The diet thus far hasnt been very difficult to stick to, and I was a little worried because not much of my eating habits had changed, mainly the portion sizes. I even managed to remove sugar from my coffee without much fuss (I thought I’d hate it more than I did, but it’s actually not bad).

But this just goes to show how important portion sizes are! And in case anyone is wondering, no I didnt go on a diet of just carrots and lettuce or something extreme. In fact, I managed to fit in calamari, a cocktail, a hot cross bun, and even pizza into this week.

For those who are interested, I’ll list my week’s intake here:

Day One:
Breakfast: Nothing
Lunch: White bread x 3, margerine x 3, turkey slices x 6, lettuce and tomato (basically, one closed and one open sandwich): 9pts
Dinner: Chicken leg (medium sized), chicken wing, 1/2 cup of rice, peas and corn (just less than a cup): 7pts
Snacks: Coffee, full cream milk, 2 x sugar, 1 x apple: 3 pts
Total: 19/18 pts

Day Two:
Breakfast: Oasto Easy (Strawberry & Yoghurt flavour): 3.5 pts
Lunch: Nothing.
Dinner: Chicken thigh (with skin), gem squash, 1/2 cup of rice: 6 pts
Snacks: Coffee, full cream milk, 2 x sugar: 2 pts
Total: 11.5/18 pts

Day Three:
Breakfast: 45g All Bran Flakes, 1 cup of full cream milk: 6 pts
Lunch: White bread x 2, ham slice, lettuce and tomato: 3 pts
Dinner: I & J Chunky (crumbed fish), 1/2 cup of rice, peas and corn (about 1 cup): 6 pts
Snacks: Coffee, full cream milk, 2 x sugar: 2 pts
Total: 17/18 pts

Day Four:)
Breakfast: Oasto Easy (Strawberry & Yoghurt flavour): 3.5 pts
Lunch: Hot dog bun, mayo (approx 1.5 tsp), 2 tsp tomato sauce, vienna: 4.5 pts
Dinner: Pizza slice (Roman’s margerita with extra tomato, medium) x 3: 7.5 pts
Snacks: Just Juice can, 100ml wine, Coffee, full cream milk, 2 x sugar: 4 pts
Total: 19.5/18 pts

Day Five:
Breakfast: coffee, 2% milk: 1 pt
Lunch: Burger bun, chicken fillets, sauce (basically a chicken prego roll): 5.5 pts
Dinner: 80g cooked calamari, 1/2 cup of rice, gem squash, 1 tsp Grape Seed Oil (chilli flavour!): 3.5 pts
Snacks: Wine, cocktail, oils and bread pieces: 6 pts
Total: 16/18 pts

Day Six:
Breakfast: coffee, 2% milk, extra milk: 1.5 pts
Lunch: Burger bun, ham, 1tsp Dijonnaise, tomato and lettuce: 4 pts
Dinner: 350g cooked pasta, tomatos, 3 olives, herbs and spices, 1 tsp Grape Seed Oil (chilli flavour!): 5 pts
Snacks: None.
Total: 10.5/18 pts

Day Seven:
Breakfast: Oasto Easy (Strawberry & Yoghurt flavour): 3.5 pts
Lunch: Hot cross bun: 3 pts
Dinner: 125g cooked spaghetti, 100g bolognaise, 2 tsp Grape Seed Oil (chilli flavour!): 7 pts
Snacks: 100ml wine: 1.5 pts
Total: 15/18 pts

I dont reach my 18 points every day, but the times where I normally would take a huge portion (*cough*spaghetti bolognaise*cough*), I’ve cut back which is a big thing. Plus the decrease in sugar intake (eg no sugar on All Bran breakfast or Oasto Easy) is clearing working. Also if you’re more aware at how much a teaspoon of margerine is, you tend not to waste points on it. 1 teaspoon of marg is worth 1 whole point! Eek!

Yay! Here’s to the next kilogram!