Fun&Easy Cookie Decoration Ideas

You know, Christmas is coming and everybody (even those who normally don`t bake very often) makes cookies. Served plain or with a touch of icing, but what if your cookies had something special?

 

I must apologize for the "bleeding" of the icing, but, hey, it was my first attempt in decorating cookies and I did pretty well. For a beginner, of course.

I came up with this small ideas thanks to someone I know. She posted on Facebook a picture showing some festive decorated cookies and I asked if she made them. Her answer was that she didn`t do it, but she`d like to. 

So I figuired out that a tutorial on my blog might help some of you to impress guests with these. Aren`t they just cute?

 

Now, I used several methods of decorating the cookies, but first of all, I present to you my recipe for royal icing.

Ingredients 

1 egg white

150 grams powdered sugar

food coloring(mainly red, blue, green and yellor but I used only red and blue)

Directions 

Beat the egg white until frothy, or until you trace a small line with your fingertip and it holds. Like in the picture below:

With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the powdered sugar. The icing, when lifted, should fall in ribbons. Like this:

Now It`s time to dye your icing in the desired colors. Keep in mind that for each color you use, you will need and extra piping bag.

Time for decorating!
1.Method:(Snowflake)
Take some icing and put it on the cookie. Take a toothpick and even it out.

 See? You need a bit of patience.
Now that you have this done, take the piping bag which has the white icing and pipe strips on the blue icing. Gently tap the cookie to help the icing set. 
To give your  snowflake that magic cristal effect, dunk it in granulated white sugar.

Aaaand here you have it:

 

2.Method:(Hearts)

Put some icing on the cookie and spread it evenly with a toothpick. After that, take the piping bag (which has the white royal icing in it) and pipe small dots. Take the toothpick and place it just above the white dot, tracing a line trough it.

     Finished! Here you go:D

 

3.Method:(Marble)

This is the easiest methods of all. 

After you finished decorating and you still have some icing left but don`t want to waste anything, simply put a tablespoon of the other icings, swirling it aroung in the air. Just like in the picture below:

                                     

Take a cookie and dunk it in this mixture (without having stirred anything) and let the excess drip off. This is what you should have:

 

Note: Let the icing set for at lest 3 hours before handing your decorated cookie.

 

I`m sorry for the low quality of my photos but, again, the light wouldn`t cooperate! :D I hope this tutorial helped. I`d love to know how they turned out for you.

Lots of love and may you have the greatest holidays! 

 

 

   

  

  
 

  

   

 

Carrot Muffins

When I first told people what these muffins were made of, I could clearly see on their faces that expression "Carrots in muffins? No thanks.", but many of them seem not to know that carrots, when cooked, are a burst of flavor and add natural sweetness. That means you can have a delicious and healthy muffin at the same time.

Bless the lazy Sundays! My main activity in that day is doing anything but studying. Reading a good book, going horseback riding or watching TV are the best ways for me to relax.

I mean, everybody needs it. Besides these things, Sunday is the day when I usually crave something sweet that has to be homemade. And nothing beats a nice batch of muffins.

There is one thing I demand when having a muffin: moistness. I hate biting out of a dry one. So this is why I added sour cream to the batter. 

You might not have heard (if you are not a fan of baking) that sour cream, buttermilk,oil and applesauce help the cakes or sweetbreads become more moist and tender. So this is why I used both sour cream and oil in this recipe. 

You know, I mentioned that these muffins are healthy as well, so the amount of oil and sour cream is just 1/2 cup each. 

Here you go, the recipe with full instructions:

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

a pinch of salt

3/4 (three quarters) Tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup of raisins (I used golden but any type works)

1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts

3 Tablespoons shredded coconut

3 large carrots, grated

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 vegetable (canola,sunflower or walnut) oil

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon lemon zest (grated lemon peel)

Directions:

1. Bring 1/2 of water to a boil and soak the raisins, set aside while you are preparing the rest. 

2. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F/180 Celsius and line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin paper liners or spray it with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

3.In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, walnuts, raisins (after you took them out of the water), grated carrots and shredded coconut. These are your dry ingredients.

4. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and the sugar until pale in color. Add the lemon zest, vanilla extract, oil and sour cream. Beat well. These are your dry ingredients

5.Now make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients. With the help of a spatula, combine everything together but do not over-mix(or else you will have a tough, dense muffin)! Just until you see no flour traces in the batter.

6.Divide the batter into the muffin cups, filling it about 3/4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes (depending of your oven) or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, with no wet batter on it but a few moist crumbs.

7. After you checked if the muffins are ready, take the tray out of the oven and transfer it on a wire rack and let the muffins rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Now take them out and enjoy! :)