Double-Decker Cookies

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.

Swirl of Hearts Cookies

I love, love cookies. Especially the ones that are decorated so beautifully that they look like the most cutest and prettiest things ever. I have been putting this idea off since I added it to my bake-to-do list but after browsing many cookie creations created by other great bakers, I finally decided it was the time to try these. In fact, this is the first time I've attempted to make sugar cookies and decorate them with royal icing. In the end, I was really happy of the results and although it took me about 2 or 3 hours to bake and ice a huge batch of cookies, it was well worth all the time and effort.

What I actually mean by saying that it was worth it, is that these sweet cookies are seriously addictive and really yummy. The soft, buttery and slighly crumbly texture of the cookies melt in your mouth when you take the first bite and the sweet, hard icing matches perfectly with the soft cookie. Now I am kind of obsessed with them and am already thinking about how to decorate the next batch of cookies.... so do you think animal or nature themed cookies are good ideas? After eating the first cookie, I couldn't stop at one!

I decided to start off with a nice, simple pattern that looks like a swirl of connected hearts. You might have seen this technique before but just in case you are curious, all you need is a toothpick and a small batch of royal icing tinted to your desired colour. Then just pipe small dots of the coloured icing around the edge of a wet flooded cookie and drag your toothpick around the dots to create the pattern. So easy and fun to do which was perfect for me as a beginner.

Sugarbelle, who you might know as the cookie queen, makes amazing cookies and has a blog dedicated to her huge cookie love. Her sugar cookie recipe that I found looked perfect for my first batch of cookies and thats when I went with her recipe, which also has helpful tips and hints as well as loads of pictures.

Perfect sugar cookies from Sugarbelle

Makes two to two and a half dozen medium sized cookies.

Ingredients:

227 grams unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

175 grams confectioner’s or icing sugar

1 egg at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

400-425 grams all-purpose or plain flour

Method:

1. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add this to the wet mixture a little at a time until it is incorporated and forms a dough.

3. Immediately roll out the dough to a 1/4 of an inch and dust it with flour if it becomes sticky to handle. Cut cookies into desired shapes with assorted cookie cutters.

4. Carefully transfer the cut out shapes to a parchment or baking paper lined baking tray. Bake cookies in a preheated oven of 204 degrees celcius or 400 degrees farenheit for about 7-8 minutes until the cookies look dry and lighly golden but not brown. Let them completely cool on a wired rack before decorating them with royal icing.

Royal icing from Joy of Baking

Makes a small batch, enough for the cookies I made from the recipe above.

Ingredients:

For using it as a border:

1 large egg white

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

2 cups (230 grams) icing or confectioner's sugar, sifted

For using it for flooding cookies:

2 large egg whites

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups (330 grams) icing or confectioner's sugar, sifted

Method:

1. Beat the egg white with the lemon juice and icing sugar together with a stand mixer until it turns into a stiff icing like a meringue and looks like of piping consistency. Cover the icing with plastic wrap tightly when not in use.

2. Put the icing in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip (like no.2) and pipe a border around the outside edges of the cookie. Let it completely dry before flooding or covering the surface of the  cookie with more royal icing.

3. For the icing for flooding the cookies; in a bowl of a stand mixer, beat the egg whites and lemon juice until combined.

4. Add the icing sugar to the mixture and beat on low speed until smooth and incorporated. The icing should form a ribbon when you lift the beater and fall back into the icing before slowly disappearing. If it is too thin, add more icing sugar to thicken it to the right consistency or if it is too thick, add a little water until smooth. Cover the icing with plastic wrap when not using to prevent it from drying out.

5. Tint this batch of icing to your desired colour with food gel colouring or just keep it plain white. Cover the cookies' surface that have been bordered earlier with royal icing and move it with a small spoon to the edges to cover the cookie completely.

6. Decorate as desired when the icing is still wet (for me, I used the hearts technique). Let them sit overnight to completely dry.