A teachers gift...

Okay, so Christmas is coming and very fast too. And because of that I have to think ahead a little to prep for teachers gifts. What! Christmas is around the corner..who am I kidding! Now, my little ones have a few teachers to consider for presents in order to say 'thanks' for all their hard work, care and kindness throughout the year, that they have lavished on my children. For I (and I mean 'we' here) do appreciate it all. My life runs as smoothly as it does because of these lovely people (okay so i am kidding that my life runs smoothly and stress free, but it isn't anything they can fix!).

So what do your get a teacher for Christmas, a gift of course! And home baked cookies! Now I know there are lots of mums (or dads) like me who work, and don't have much time up their sleeve, but I know you too like me love to bake and decorate. So, let me introduce you to a blog I follow - 'The Decorated Cookie'. Oh, you've heard of it...silly me of course you have.

It is fabulous and a little while ago there was this brilliant post about sprinkles or sparkles or whatever you want to call them. Either way it was an excuse for me to have some fun, and buy some more. Do you like sprinkles? I love them, on cupcakes, cookies, gingerbread houses and whatever...i think it is the 'hundreds and thousands' concept that gets me.

So, Meaghan has this great posting and I immediately fell in love with the cookies. I couldn't help myself and so my search began for jars....Oh I could go on, but needless to say Peters of Kensington saved my life...Ohh I loooooove that store, so many things I want to buy...but yes I am going on again. So yes,I found jars, and pretty sprinkles and made dough....lots if it! and made cookies. Lots of them!

I will share a few tips that I rely on this time of year to get through a large baking batch:
1. Firstly, pick a dough you like to use and stick with it. The one I use lets me change flavours simply enough.
2. Make the dough, roll into a log, and put it in the fridge. When it is firm enough I cut small amounts and cut my shapes. I then place those shapes directly onto baking paper lined trays and freeze (collect all the biscuits together when frozen and bag them) and place in freezer again.
3. This way I can bake them all together. So just take them out of the freezer when you are ready to bake and add a little extra cooking time (a minute or two). Cool, cool, cool.
4. Make all your batches of icing when you are ready to decorate and store in air-tight containers. I also used store-bought royal icing powder to decorate these cookies. I bought the Queens brand royal icing, and find it very good to work with, and that way I don't have to worry about raw egg-whites in my icing.

I hope the tips help.

I really feel these cookies offer a sparkle to the Christmas season. Yes, they are simple, but who wants to be complicated when you have so much Christmas baking to do!

I was working in the lab late one night..

When my eyes beheld an eerie sight....actually it was more likely that I was shopping when I beheld the eerie sight, but it sounds better this way. What am I talking about....Halloween cookie cutters.

So as my husband is starting to work out, I have a thing for cookie cutters. It has not reached epic proportions yet, but I could get there given time. I love them. And there are some great ones out there - like this one below. I loved it. It is a Fred brand one and my eldest and I had some fun playing around with it.

 

As Halloween fast approaches there are blogs and websites that are overloaded with festive cookie designs. I love them. I was never into halloween to tell the truth but this year I am. And we are planning to dress up too. If I can find a funky hat before then.

This is a shortbread vanilla cookie with white royal icing.