butterfly cookies

There are two reasons I started this blog:

1. Because I love to bake!

2. Because I want to learn how to decorate cookies...and decorate them WELL. (Not the kind of decorate you do at Christmas when you're 5 years old with red sprinkles and candy canes.) Hence the name Dainty Glaze, which has been put on hold until I actually master the art of daintily glazing a cookie. In the meantime, I share with you all my latest dessert discoveries, and my cookie decorating learning process.

There are only about 5 million steps to decorating a cookie - finding a good cookie recipe, choosing a shape, rolling/cutting/baking, learning how to make royal icing (with the right consistency), choosing colours, choosing a pattern, and then the hardest part of all: actually decorating. And somehow I'm still surprised when they don't turn out the way I envisioned!

That being said, I have finally mastered 2 steps of the cookie making process: the cookie recipe, and the royal icing. Oh yes, and making relatively straight lines.

I'm not sure where I originally found the following recipes, but in my butterfly-cookie-making-endeavor today I adapted them and they worked PERFECTLY!

Sugar Cookies

2 C. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 C. sugar

1 C. butter

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream sugar and butter.

Add egg and vanilla. Mix.

Add dry ingredients. Mix until a soft dough forms.

Refrigerate for one hour before rolling, cutting and baking at 350.

*Hint: Use lots of flour when rolling the dough - put it all over your work surface and rolling pin.

Royal Icing

2 egg whites

2 tsp. lemon juice

3 C. icing sugar

Beat egg whites with lemon juice until soft peaks form.

Sift in icing sugar and beat until smooth.

Add 1 Tbsp. water at a time to thin icing if necessary.

*Hint: Use meringue powder instead of egg whites. A friend of mine sent me a can of powder and I think it works a lot better than egg whites. 1 tsp. powder + 1 Tbsp. water = 1 egg white.

*Hint #2: Don't believe anyone when they say you need electric beaters - I whipped up my icing by HAND baby.

So there it is, my most recent attempt. Now that the recipes are mastered, perhaps next time I will master more of the art of decorating. And eventually, you will be sitting at a wedding, all bored and hungry, and one of my cookies will be sitting in front of you looking all delicious and beautiful, and you'll eat it and remember me. :)

Well...we'll see.