Woodland Wonders ~ Sweet Sugar Cookies ♡

“I wonder, I wonder, I wonder why each little bird has someone to sing to, sweet things to a gay little love melody… I wonder, I wonder if my heart keeps singing will my song go winging to someone who’ll find me and bring back a love song to me?“

I often imagine myself as Briar Rose, wandering in a woodland holding a dainty wicker basket, with a rose adorning my hair, clothed in a dreamy dress.

It would be a dream come true to have a little picnic with all my little woodland friends…

On this picnic we would have any array of delicacies – fresh strawberries, french fancies, dainty jam and banana sandwiches, strawberry tarts, rose lemonade, and finally… sugar cookies!

I have shared my sugar cookies in a previous blog post. I use the Peggy Porschen vanilla sugar cookie recipe which is my favourite!

Each time I make this recipe I’m so pleased with the results ~ the biscuits are a golden colour, soft but crunchy and ever so sweet…

I love to warm one up slightly in the oven and pair it with a cup of tea.

I was so disheartened that we’re unable to see Peggy’s summer collection. Consequently I decided make my own treats in their classic, cutesy style! The cookies are set with pretty pink royal icing and adorned with the cutest little sugar paste creatures! I think that the fawns are my favourite.

You can have your very own princess inspired tea-party at home; I love to wear my Needle and Thread Anya dress and use my Royal Albert New Country Roses Pink tea pot whilst watching a classic romance such as Roman Holiday or a Fred and Ginger Rogers film.

Line and flood-icing can be a difficult skill to master but if you keep practicing I know you will get there. If you want to know how to make these dreamy sugar cookies just keep on reading.

Ingredients:

For the vanilla sugar cookies:

200g unsalted butter, softened

200g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 medium egg, lightly beaten

400g plain flour (sifted)

Equipment for the icing:

2 piping bags

2 small bowls and tea spoons

a cocktail stick

For the line and flood icing:

2 egg whites

400g icing sugar

water

pink food colouring

Method:

For the vanilla sugar cookies:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175˚C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla bean paste into a bowl and cream together (do not overwork or the cookies will spread during baking.)
3. Slowly pour the beaten egg into the mixture whilst whisking until well incorporated.
4. Add the flour and mix on low speed until just combined.
5. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes or until cool and firm.
6. Knead the dough, place onto a floured surface and roll out until 5mm thick.
7. Take your snowflake cookie cutters and cut out as many shapes as you desire.
8. Place the cookies onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and bake for about 6-10 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
9. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

For the line icing:

1. Place two medium egg whites into a large bowl and mix moderately (do not add water to this.)
2. Weigh out your icing sugar and then sift into the egg whites. Start mixing slowly and then gradually raise to a higher speed.
3. Once the icing sugar has dissolved into the liquid you can raise the speed on the electric whisk (mix for approximately 3 minutes.)
4. Move the mixture into a small bowl and gradually add in small amounts of pink food colouring until you reach your desired shade of pink.
5. Place your line icing into a piping bag (leave half for the flood icing.)

For the flood icing:

1. To turn the rest of your line icing into flood icing you need only add 1-2 tsps of water (the consistency should only be slightly runnier than the line icing.)
2. Move the flood icing into another piping bag or a squeeze bottle.

Decorating with line icing:

Line icing provides a wall so that your flood icing doesn’t spill over the edges of your biscuits.

1. To start, you will need to outline the edges of each biscuit; you can do this by taking your piping bag filled with line icing.
2. Make a very small incision at the end of your piping bag so that you can create neat lines.
3. Hold the bag 1-2cm above the biscuit, so you can manoeuvre above the biscuit without breaking any lines.
4. Start piping lightly and let the icing softly fall onto the biscuit and start drawing your outline.
5. Wait 10 minutes for the icing to completely dry before using your flood icing.

Decorating with flood icing:

Flooding is when you apply the runnier icing into the small area you have created inside the lines of your biscuit.

1. Take the piping bag filled with flood icing and snip a little bit off the tip of the icing bag in order to allow more icing to emerge when squeezed.
2. Touch the edge of the lined icing with the flood icing and completely fill the gaps.
3. Shake the biscuit and use a cocktail stick to perforate any air bubbles that may have formed.
4. Wait until the biscuit is completely dry until adding any decoration.
5. For the snowflake design I followed this tutorial.

I hope this post can inspire you to get into your kitchen and bake something sweet! Practicing a new skill can be so rewarding. I’d love to know what you’ve been baking recently?

I’m sending lots of love to you all,

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