Picture tutorial: Quickly iced green Christmas trees

 

 

Since my family is still sleeping, I decided to quickly upload the Christmas tree cookie tutorial. This is what the cookie will look like

I used the same recipe as in the Linzer cookies, just added some Americolour leaf green to the dough. Add enough though, that the dough is really bright green, as you will lose some colour in the baking process

Get out your tree cutter, I used the smallest one from my Tree cutter set, rolling pin and silpat mat, roll out the dough and start cutting out your trees

When moving the trees to the baking tree, lift them off the mat, by slipping your hand inder the mat to avoid distortion

Chill the dough for at least 15 minutes, while your oven is heating up to 140 degrees Celsius. Bake cookies for around 10-14 minutes, when the edges start to brown, the cookies are ready. Take out of the oven and let them cool down.

 In the meantime, make a small batch of royal icing and colour them green, yellow and red. I fitted my piping bags with Wilton tips # 2,aced them into tall water glasses (makes them easier to fill with icing) and used the Wilton rubber bands to tie the open end shut.

Now start with the green icing and just pipe swags across the tree with the green icing.

Repeat with all trees, as the green icing needs to slightly crust over, before adding the next colours.

Using the yellow icing, pipe small dots along the swags, these are the lights.

Next step is to pipe the red dots, make them a bit larger (use more pressure) than the lights, these are the red Christmas ornaments.

The finished tree, icing is still wet, it will not be as shiny when it dries completely. Leave to dry overnight, before packaging in tins.



Picture tutorial: Home made room freshener

 

Todays post will be about a very simple home made room freshener. Here in Shanghai, we cannot get real trees, that smell of Christmas. Years ago, I was very into fragrances, essential oils and the such and still have some supplies left over. It's well known, that you can add essential oils into water, light a tealight under it to warm it up to freshen the room, however a tea light goes out, and with our cats, I am very careful about open flames. Our kitten is still extremely playful and WILL examine every new thing I put out.

 

All you need for this project is a glass jar with lid, some baking powder and some essential oil. Fitting to this season, I decided on pine.

 

Put some baking powder into the glass jar, add 4-5 drops of essential oil, close jar and shake. I made my jar about 5 days ago, open it every once in a while, until the room smells of pine. Give it a nice shake everytime you open the jar and the smell will permeate the room slowly.

Depending on the season, you can vary the scent. Lavender is calming and could be used in the bedroom, citronella keeps mossies away.

Have fun making your own home scents

 



Picture tutorial, cut out cookies using a template

 

Some time ago a client requested egyptian themed cookies, specifically Tut Ankh Amun for the boys and Cleopatra for the girls. I did not have cookie cutters I could use, but that is no problem. If they would have been cookies, that I knew I would be making again, I would have made cookie cutters, but I knew, these would be a one off kind of cookie.

 

I scoured the web to find pictures I thought I could replicate in cookie form and found two pictures. I saved them to my computer, scaled them to the right size and printed them out. Out came my laminating machine and I laminated them.

 

Make your favourite rollout cookie dough

Tip, I usually make and then portion my cookie dough into manageble amounts. Left over dough can then be frozen

Place the template onto the rolled out dough



Use a sharp knife to cut out

 

remove excess dough

 

Leave the template on the dough, when you move the cookie onto the baking tray, This helps with keeping the shape

 

Once on the tray, lift off the template (cookies with plastic tops do not taste good)

 

 

Repeat until you have enough cookies

 

 

cut out cookies on baking tray, off into the fridge for cooling.

 

Bake cookies and once cooled, start decorating

 

 

These cookies served as party favours

 

 

 

 

 



 

Alien Cupcakes

Well here is my first picture tutorial on how to make alien cupcakes
You will need one each per alien
One normal sized cupcake and one mini sized cupcake
1 toothpick per alien, you could use uncooked spaghetti as well, if you want to keep them all edible, just make sure, the kids know, it's in there
green buttercream
a bit of black fondant for the eyes and the antennae

Directions:

Bake cupcakes and let cool
Remove the wrapper from the minicupcake and set onto a normal sized cupcake, add a bit of buttercream under the mini. Insert toothpick to attach the head
rough ice with green icing
smooooth it, after it has crusted a bit
make two antennae and two eyes per alien and place onto the head

Last step is to pack them up

 

Ready for pickup

I must add, that a client sent me a picture of what she wanted, these are not my design, but if anyone knows, who came up with them, I will be happy to give credit. I could not find anything on the web, so I winged making them.

Have fun making them