When I first saw these cute double decker cookies on Bake at 350, I instantly fell in love with the idea which gives you two cookies all in one! It was perfect for me as a beginner in cookie decorating which I have only started recently. These are nice and simple cookies topped with royal icing and decorated with dots to give it a cute look. As you can see, my cookies are quite untidy and not as good as those on Bake at 350 but I am learning and improving more on my cookie decorating skills as I bake up more batches of cookies. They tasted light, sweet and beautiful for morning or afternoon tea and was especially delicious when paired with a hot cup of tea or coffee.
I used Sweet Sugarbelle's recipe for perfect sugar cookies again but unfortunately for me, I over-browned some of them and was able to rescue other batches that resulted in quite a lot of crumbs. The royal icing recipe from Joy of Baking was successful the last time I used it so I adapted it by adding more icing sugar to follow the 10 second icing rule which Sweetopia uses. You can also follow other rules some cookie decorators prefer like the 20 second rule from Sweet Sugarbelle but go with what you are the most comfortable with. I also think that using the same icing for both outlining and flooding suits me because I don't have many piping bags on hand and is convienient as well.
I decided to make two colours and was torn between the colour choices of electric green, sky blue, electric pink and violet. Sky blue and electric pink were my favourites and I ended up liking the blue cookies (because they looked better) instead of the pink. Some of the dots on the cookies are raised because I did not work fast enough to make sure that they layed flat like those on the blue cookies. And my piping skills still need to improve a lot. Practice makes perfect so be prepared to see more cookies on this blog!
Perfect sugar cookie recipe from Sugarbelle.
Makes about 24 cookies.
Ingredients:
227 grams unsalted butter
175 grams icing or confectioner's sugar
1 egg at room temperature
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
400-425 grams of plain or all-purpose flour
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 204 degrees celcius (400 degrees farenheit) and beat butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla to the mixture and mix until combined.
2. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt and add this to the mixture a little at a time until incorporated.
3. Roll out the dough with some flour to dust on hand to a 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies with mini hearts and stars cutters (the same ones I used in the homemade candies) and cloud or flower cutters and place them on a baking tray lined with baking/parchment paper.
4. Bake the cookies for 7 to 8 minutes until dry but not brown.
Royal icing recipe from Joy of Baking.
Ingredients:
2 large egg whites (60 grams)
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
3 cups or 330 grams of icing (confectioners) sugar, sifted
Sky blue and pink food gel colouring
Method:
1. Beat egg whites and lemon juice in a bowl of an electric mixer until combined.
2. Add the icing sugar and mix on a low speed until combined and smooth. (Depending on your preference for the consistency of flood icing or for bordering, you can use the 10 second rule which is when you drag a knife through the center of the icing, it should come back together completely in 10 seconds). Mix in more icing sugar if it is too thin or add a little water if it is too thick until the desired consistency.
3. Tint the icing with blue and pink or your favourite colours and mix well.
To decorate the cookies,
1. Fill your piping bags with royal icing and border the cloud cookies with blue and pink icing. Fill the cookies with plain or white icing (go to this tutorial from Sweet Sugarbelle for help with outlining and flooding) and add coloured dots to the white icing while working quickly before they set.
2. Ice the hearts and stars with coloured icing and leave to dry overnight.
3. Stick the hearts and stars to the cloud cookies with a little royal icing and set aside about 30 minutes to an hour to set.
