I spy with my big eye...a spelling mistake

Like most people, I am baffled by how fast Ramadhan has gone. As of today, we have already celebrated Eid and this post is so late! I know, so sorry! 

So pretend this post is pre-Eid...

Ms Hanaa Last Minute decided to do a cookie decorating party for a group of children! 
Well, I ordered some cookie cutters and was planning to make cookies with my daughter and siblings but then - ping - lightbulb moment! How about inviting 27 kids and do a cookie decorating party? 

I decided this on Thursday 7th June and made the date for the 9th so I had two days to do everything.

Friday was a busy day for me, I was working from 10.30am to 6.30pm; I took advantage of any free time which was just after I dropped off my sister at school and that half hour after work before the shops closed at 7pm. 
First stop, Tkmaxx. 
The previous day, I had hidden some items that I wanted to purchase and when I went back to get them (thankfully, they were still there) I briefly looked in the clearance section. The word SWEET jumped out at me and I reached for it and saw it was a book by Elise Strachan or My Cupcake Addiction on Youtube. Did you think I put down this book? I flicked through the beautiful, brightly coloured pages to see if there was a recipe for Sugar Cookies.

Sugar cookies are more popular in America and when I was searching for a recipe, as expected the recipes were in Cups measurement which I don't mind for dry products like flour or sugar but for butter? I don't know whether you have to pack it down or level it. Here in UK, we don't have "sticks of butter" like they do which takes away all the guesswork. 

Back to the book, it was there and it was in GRAMS! To seal the deal, it was also just £6 from £20 and that's how I ended up with a new baking book.

After TK, I shopped at Aldi for the ingredients: 8 packs of unsalted butter, 4 boxes of icing sugar and golden syrup then went home to drop them off before I went to work. 

Round two of shopping was after work, just before Sainsbury's closed, I rushed to buy sprinkles and grabbed two of each kind: hundreds and thousands, chocolate beans, strands, shimmery ones, the ball ones that are so hard to bite into and I also picked up some fish fingers, chips and beans to feed the kids on the day.

Original sugar cookie recipe (makes 4 dozen cookies)

220g unsalted butter, room temperature
170g caster sugar or granulated sugar
1 large egg
400g plain flour
2 tsp vanilla extract OR vanilla bean paste
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (not baking powder)
1/4 tsp salt

Icing:
1 cup icing sugar
2-3 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons golden syrup (original recipe states corn syrup, we don't have that here in the UK)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract OR vanilla bean paste
food coloring, optional
recipe adapted from Lindsay Ann Bakes

For the party, I doubled the cookie recipe above, then made it 3 times for 3 variations. I didn't know it will make so much; I forgot to check how much the original makes. In the end, I didn't get to make the 3rd batch but it freezes well and you know what that means..."sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar in suppertime"

Below is the doubled recipe:

450g unsalted butter, room temperature
340g caster sugar or granulated sugar
2 large eggs
800g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (not baking powder)
1/2 tsp salt

Variations:

Orange and Cinnamon 
To the doubled recipe, add the zest from one large orange and 3tsps ground cinnamon to the flour, bicarb and salt mixture. 

Cardamom
Add 1/2 tablespoon ground cardamom to the flour, bicarb and salt mixture. 

Peppermint

Add 3tsps of peppermint extract after adding in the eggs.

Method:

1) In a bowl, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and set aside. Here is where you add any other dry flavouring, like spices and zests.
2) Put the softened butter and sugar into a stand mixer and beat for more or less 5 minutes on medium speed, until it becomes white, creamy and well combined. 
3) Add the egg and vanilla (plus any other liquid flavourings) and beat for another 30 seconds until incorporated. We don't want to add too much air into the cookies.
4) Lower the speed to slow and gently, in thirds, add in the dry ingredients. You add it all at once, you will have a cloud of flour in your face when you turn on the mixer. Turn up the speed 1 notch more, and beat the dough until it starts coming together.
5) Once that happens, tip the dough out on to a clean dry surface and knead the dough together to finish it off into a ball. Divide the dough in half, flatten it to a disk and wrap it in cling film.
6) Chill in the fridge for 1 hour, preferably 3hours or overnight. 
7) When ready, turn on the oven to 160 degrees Celcius and line baking trays with baking paper.
8) Once chilled, working with 1 batch at a time, roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper to about the thickness of a pound coin.
9) With your chosen cookie cutters, cut away and place onto your baking tray. 
10) Chill the cutout cookies for 5 minutes so they hold their shape when baking
11) Bake for 7-11 minutes until the edges start to turn golden. 
12) Remove the cookies onto a cooling rack (or a work surface), immediately, and leave to cool.
13)  Decorate!

Icing for doubled cookie recipe:
500g icing sugar
10-13 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon golden syrup 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract OR vanilla bean paste
food coloring, optional

1) Pour icing sugar into a bowl, add 10 tbsps of water, golden syrup, vanilla, and whisk. If the mixture is too thick, add another tablespoon. At 12-13 tbsps you get the right consistency* for flooding. 

2) Divide the icing into bowls for however many colours you need and colour**
3) Pour the icing into a piping bag or ziplock bag. 

For children, you want the icing to be a consistency where they don't find it too hard to squeeze out. 

* There are two types of consistencies used:
- outline consistency; this would be for outlines so the icing that you then put in the middle doesn't flow out. 
- flooding consistency; this is runnier and as the word suggests, it floods. It is perfect to fill in the outlines. Usually, you add 1 tablespoon more of liquid to loosen the icing used for outlines.

I didn't bother to do these 2 consistencies because of the number of children, and I took their ages into consideration. 

**I prefer to use gel food colouring as it won't change the consistency of the icing and it is far more concentrated than liquid food colouring. 
However, if you don't have gel food colouring, you may need to add more icing sugar if you start to notice the icing is thinning out. Add the icing sugar 1tsp at a time until correct consistency.

The icing will set hard but because of the golden syrup it wouldn't be rock hard.

I hope you try this out, especially the orange and cinnamon one!

tag me on insta @aanahanaa I would love to see!

We stayed up till 2am in the morning baking, I enlisted the help of my daughter, sister and brother. May God bless their souls!





The sprinkles I had put in cupcake cases and then into muffin tins. The cupcake cases allow for easy cleanup when pouring back into its container. Plus, I gave each child their own teeny spoon to scoop their desired sprinkles onto their iced creations.



The finished results:
We wrote the children's name with icing on their plates and hade left them to dry whilst they went to play.
They took their cookies home in their own plastic containers that they had brought from home. What a sweet day!