Vanilla Sugar Cookie Recipe

I have now tried many different cookie dough recipes to suit the icing and some were not so great so I decided to vary them to create my favourite recipe.  The recipe makes a great cookie which is quite crunchy and it works with flooded icing.

 

 

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

2 large eggs
100grams icing sugar
100grams white sugar
3 tspns vanilla extract ( don't use vanilla essence - it's not good)
200 grams butter
500 grams flour
1 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Beat the eggs on a high speed electric mixer until pale and fluffy, then add the vanilla extract.
2. Add half of the flour and mix on low speed.
3. Butter should be very soft but not melted.  Add this to the flour and egg mixture.
4. Add remaining flour according to consistency of the dough.  As it thickens, stop the mixer and finish the mix by hand - it will be easier to tell how thick the mixture will go.
5. The dough should not be too sticky, but also not too dry.  Either way it is impossible to work with.
6. One you are happy with the dough place in the fridge for 1 or 2 hours.
7. Roll out dough to desired thickness and use good quality cookie cutters for your shapes.
8. Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.
9. Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until they become golden brown.  The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.
10. Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!

12 of My Fav Things...........

I have been looking back at my baking and creations for 2012 and thought it would be fun to pick my fav 12 designs and share them:

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

April 2012

May 2012

June 2012

OK so I can't seem to pick just one of my creations from each month because I love them all!!!!!!

July 2012

August 2012

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

December 2012

So there we are 2012 in a nutshell, but I found it very hard picking out my 12 fav creations.  Welcome to a new year and according to the universe it is meant to be a good year for Cancerians, so yippee for me!  I am such a lucky gal to have such a great family and some very special and dear friends.........thank you all for a lovely year and I look forward to doing some even prettier creations in 2013. 

When a child is born, so is a grandmother.........

It must be ground hog day as I find myself blogging once again on a Saturday night.  Unlike normal human beings, going out on Saturday night seems to be a thing of the past.  Not sure if it is an age thing - seeing as I am a really old granny.  At the moment I am wrapped up in a blanket so it could well be.  But what a lovely time of life it is being a granny.  Not enough credit is given to grandparents these days and I never really thought about it myself until I became one (3 times over).  My parents (my dad has now passed away) were always around for my 3 children and although we re-located from Melbourne to Sydney when my first child Jayde (now infamous owner of the lovely www.littlepaperlane.com.au along with husbo Steve)turned one, they were always coming to Sydney or we would go to Melbourne. They would do anything for them - and still will.

Being a parent is such a busy time and you find yourself wearing many different hats, but the love for your children becomes tenfold when they have children. 

So now that they have all grown up it is my turn to sit back and reap the benefits.

My first beautiful grandchild to arrive is Iggy who is now almost ready to turn 5 and what a delight he is.  Always happy to  be around and loves his GG so very much.  I think he would stay with me 24 hours of each day if he could, but I know that he would also miss his lovely mum. 

Next to make an appearance is Charlee May Patching who is now 19 months and such a busy little bee.  Charlee looks a lot like her GG so that makes me very happy and she is always dancing, so I am thinking with the dance background of her lovely mumma, Bec, and the musical talents of her dad, Matt, I am sure we will see her bouncing around on Young Talent Time sometime soon. 

So now we have our third little cherub Minty Isabelle Margaret who is now all of 3 weeks old and what a quick grand entrance she made.  One and a half hours was all it took for Minty to come and say hello to the world.  She is just the image of her beautiful mumma Jayde and I am thinking a lot like her in personality as well, which is a good thing.

I think I am going to be a very busy granny for the next few years and looking forward to every single minute.  I can't wait for all the school concerts, swimming carnivals and grandparents days.

Of course I will have to be on the ready with plenty of cakes for the birthday parties.  The www.sweetnpretty.com.au kitchen will be full of fun stuff for my dear grandbabies.

"Grandma's never run out of hugs or cookies"

Saturday night at home is probably a good time to get cracking on some blogging.  I seem to be spending more and more time in the kitchen which is a good thing, but it does not allow me to share my adventures and my pictures.  For some reason the weekend of the 10th & 11th March was full of weddings and wedding showers.  I unfortunately had to turn away 9 orders!  I hate to do that but it would only spoil my creativity and make me really really anxious.  My first cake for the weekend was for Ellouise & Matt and they wanted a classic cake using a dark fruit cake for the first layer and the bottom was Hummingbird flavour (which is a cake made with banana, pineapple and coconut).  It is actually better when it first comes out of the oven hot and is served with a traditional custard, but I am hoping that the cake tasted just as good when they served it. 





My next cake was for Lisa & Stephen and what an absolutely stunning day it turned out to be.  They had their reception at Narrabeen on Sydney's Northern Beaches and considering the rain we had during the week the skies opened up and the sun came out to say hello to the lovely brides.  Once again a two layered cake with the top layer a caramel mud cake and the bottom layer was a chocolate mud cake.  I loved this cake as there were beautiful pale pink roses on it and I simply love roses. 



I also made the thank you gifts for their guests which were mini shells and star fish (to suit the theme of the beach).

My next order was for a wedding shower with the colours blue and white.  I got to use my stencils to create the beautiful initials 'K' & 'T'.  There were also cupcakes as part of the celebrations.

Alice asked me to make some cookies that would suite the theme of her sister's wedding shower using the colours of cream and salmon.

My final order which was done as a favour to a regular customer Vanessa from https://www.facebook.com/notifications#!/LittlePearEventStyling who was styling a wedding and wanted a cake decorated with only butter icing as she was putting fresh flowers on to the cake to match the theme of the wedding.  I am always happy to do simple cakes for customers to make into their own design.

So as you can see it was a very full on weekend of cakes and cookies, but that is what I do best and that is what I love to do best. 















My late goodbye to 2011

I did not get a chance to say goodbye to 2011 as it was a very busy time for me.  So I am just going to put in a quick goodby to 2011 before I get on to the new year - even though I have already posted my first order for the year.
My middle son Matt got married to his delightful fiance Bec on 9th December and of course I had the pleasure of making the wedding cake and the cute thank you gifts for the guests.  The ceremoney and reception were held at Bilgola Beach.  My eldest daughter Jayde - owner of the infamous Little Paper Lane at Mona Vale www.littlepaperlane.com.au & husband Steve - were the brains & braun behind the decorations. The day was perfect given that there was a solid week of rain and a great time was had by all.

We were also given some more happy news to end the 2011 year.  Jayde found out that she is pregnant and due to have baby # 2 in May of 2012!  Yay! So that will now make me the very proud GG (gorgeous granny) of 3 very beautiful grandchildren - Iggy, Charlee and ? (we know that it is a little girl).  I guess I am going to be very very busy with cakes in the next coming years. 

And my other busy function during the year of 2011 was the planning of my Mum's 80th Surprise birthday party.  We found lots of long lost friends and relatives and got together to give mum a great surprise to celebrate her 80th birthday.  I loved the cake I made for mum - even though it was decorated under a bit of pressure whilst all the relo's were watching!  It was a great day and will be remembered for years to come.

So it was a very busy year with lots of celebrations throughout and maybe this year I will get around to saying goodbye before rather than after.  Goodbye 2011!