Tuesday 11 January 2011

A little baking...


I mentioned last week how I got the 'Biscuiteers book of iced biscuits' for Christmas and that me and my sister had a quick go at baking and icing some biscuits over the New Year... well here are the results!


Unfortunately we didn't have many icing materials between us - only one squeezy bottle and one writing nozzle! We did have some disposable piping bags though (which we had to use without nozzles) but the effect wasn't quite as good as the holes we cut were a little too big. We were also limited on colours, having only basic yellow and red food colouring to hand, so they ended up looking quite pastel but in a way I quite like that! Would have made a lovely new born baby collection :)


Because of the lack of colours we had available, we chose to do simple shapes such as cupcakes, ducks and bunnies which we thought would suit the soft muted colourings and I'm really pleased with the different shapes we created.

We started off by making a simple gingerbread mixture, then drew some templates by hand of the outline shapes we wanted onto cardboard. After placing the templates on to the rolled out dough, we cut around them with a sharp knife, and put them in the oven to bake. Then it was time to start mixing up the icing.

First we made the piping icing which is reasonably thick (about same consistency as toothpaste so that it holds it's shape), added the food colouring and distributed it in to 3 different piping bags  - one for each colour, pink, yellow and white.



With the remaining mixture we added a little water to make the consistency runnier to make our 'flood icing', again separating it in to three portions and adding the colouring. 

We then began to pipe carefully around the outside of each biscuit shape, creating little 'piped walls' as it were. When these were dry, we decanted some of the runnier flood icing into a squeezy bottle and literally 'painted in' the middle of the biscuits in our chosen colours.



We had to do each colour one at a time, because we only had the one bottle... we could have saved so much time if we had had a couple more but we were too impatient to wait until we could get some!


Once the flooding icing had dried too, we went back over, adding in the details and lines with the piping bag colours. For some reason, we outlined some of the shapes again, but I think in hindsight this was a mistake as they looked better before, but anyway, that is a lesson learnt for next time!

I can't wait to get some more equipment (nozzles/bottles) so I can try out some more designs. I'm such a perfectionist that some of this batch didn't quite meet my exacting standards but they tasted nice and I'm sure with practise I can perfect my technique! Look out for more baking experimentation coming soon:) xxx

11 comments:

Crafts @ Home said...

They look absolutely fabulous to me, if thats your 1st go, I can't wait to see more!

kirsty said...

They look scrummy - how about a giveaway?! I love the pastel colours x

LINDSAY said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog Jenny! I love your work too. Apparently your talents extend into baking! Those cookies are darling :)

Pipany said...

Hi Jenny. Your biccies look gorgeous. Brilliant idea for newborn parents (oops, that doesn't make sense but you know what I mean!) x

Julia said...

These are brilliant Jenny, and I bet they tasted nice too!

Love Julia x x x

Becky (Hazel and Blue) said...

Yum yum! Each one looks like a peice of art, very delicate. B X

Poppy said...

Hello, thank you for visiting me! If the robin picture is still for sale I would love to buy it??? I will pop back tonight for a good read of your beautiful blog.

Lou xxx

Helen Philipps said...

Beautiful! Too pretty to eat! Love the colours of your blog too especially the blue and white dots. Helen x

Anonymous said...

Hi I've just found you through Helen's blog!
Your biscuits are gorgeous, I love the colours. They look almost too good to eat!! :)
You have a lovely blog and make the most beautiful creations!
Vivienne x

Poppy said...

Hello, thanks for the email! I will pop over tomorrow and pay for it. I don’t know if it was a good idea or not you leaving a comment on my blog. ;0) never mind, I’m really looking forward to getting it now.

Lou xxx

PS. I will email you tomorrow.....

pretty day said...

Hi Jenny- I love your textile art!! I love all your designs. And how do you stitch so perfectly?? You do a really wonderful job with it! It's very inspiring! - vivian

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...