Today is the day that I move from thinking about doing something to actually doing it. I have been reading and seeing people that just started to write what they know about. Thoughts and feeling and everything in between. My blog is going to be about the good, the bad and the ugly about baking.
Today I want to share with you the experience I had making these Fruit decorated sugar cookies. They looked great in the cookbook "The Confetti Cakes Cookbook" by Elisa Strauss and I agreed to do some for my friend. Sugar cookies are like running a marathon, you just have to keep pacing yourself to mix, chill, roll, cut, chill and then bake. This can go on for hours depending on how many batches you make up. 2 batches and lots and lots of rolling. So that was Monday, the freezer is my best friend. Today after watching the Tour De France and seeing men torture themselves on a bike for hours, I stood up with the strength and gathered my tools. Toothpicks were dragged out, at least 6 different colours were mixed and my new paint brushes that I bought to decorate these little lovelies.
I had started with the watermelon cookies which look so yummy with the pink icing and the cute little black seeds on them. I decorated them and proudly moved on to the next cookie. The orange slice, I was to pipe an orange coloured royal icing and then pipe white to make it look like it had segments. Looked easy in the photo, right? Wrong. I think it took me 1/2 hour to just do one cookie. Really? Say it isn't so.
After labouring on this one little cookie I noticed that my tiny black seeds that I had placed on the watermelon had now grown twice their size. My son kept hovering and chatting how wonderful they looked so he got the one that ended up looking like a pink smile with rotten teeth. Not appealing to me, that is for sure. So the pride goes down a little. Oh well.
This reminds me off the time that I was doing a Anniversary Cake for my parents 25 th. I had made the classic chocolate fruit cake that my mom loves so much and really doused it in Brandy. I think my dad likes it, let's put it this way, he eats it when placed in front of him. I was working on decorating it and my Grandpa came and stood behind me. With his hands on his hips he said,"What the hell is that?" I was horrified, and stammered a reply but he had said it like a statement and not a question. I think it was 15 years before I ever thought about doing a cake like that again. See my Grandma was a wonderful cook and fab at decorating. She would make the best Shortbread around and then declare, "I just whipped it up." Have you ever made Shortbread? If you have you know that you just don't whip it up.
This baking runs in my family and I have many stories that come to mind when I bake. Back to the Fruit Sugar Cookies though. At one point my youngest son says, "Mommy, when are we going to get that birthday present?" Who know that a 7 year old have better memory than I do? Well what seemed to be a peaceful morning of decorating became a rush, hurry, go to the mall, come back home then rush off to drive my son the birthday party. Wow, it was a full day of decorating kiwi's, oranges and watermelon.
One thing that I have come to understand about decorating these lovely tasting but pain in the butt cookies. Do not do it if you are rushed or not feeling patient. From wise words from a song that I would sing as a child
Have patience
have patience
don't be in such a hurry.
When you get impatient you only start to worry.
Remember, Remember that God is patient too
and think of all the time when others have to wait for you.
Enough said.
Today I want to share with you the experience I had making these Fruit decorated sugar cookies. They looked great in the cookbook "The Confetti Cakes Cookbook" by Elisa Strauss and I agreed to do some for my friend. Sugar cookies are like running a marathon, you just have to keep pacing yourself to mix, chill, roll, cut, chill and then bake. This can go on for hours depending on how many batches you make up. 2 batches and lots and lots of rolling. So that was Monday, the freezer is my best friend. Today after watching the Tour De France and seeing men torture themselves on a bike for hours, I stood up with the strength and gathered my tools. Toothpicks were dragged out, at least 6 different colours were mixed and my new paint brushes that I bought to decorate these little lovelies.
I had started with the watermelon cookies which look so yummy with the pink icing and the cute little black seeds on them. I decorated them and proudly moved on to the next cookie. The orange slice, I was to pipe an orange coloured royal icing and then pipe white to make it look like it had segments. Looked easy in the photo, right? Wrong. I think it took me 1/2 hour to just do one cookie. Really? Say it isn't so.
After labouring on this one little cookie I noticed that my tiny black seeds that I had placed on the watermelon had now grown twice their size. My son kept hovering and chatting how wonderful they looked so he got the one that ended up looking like a pink smile with rotten teeth. Not appealing to me, that is for sure. So the pride goes down a little. Oh well.
This reminds me off the time that I was doing a Anniversary Cake for my parents 25 th. I had made the classic chocolate fruit cake that my mom loves so much and really doused it in Brandy. I think my dad likes it, let's put it this way, he eats it when placed in front of him. I was working on decorating it and my Grandpa came and stood behind me. With his hands on his hips he said,"What the hell is that?" I was horrified, and stammered a reply but he had said it like a statement and not a question. I think it was 15 years before I ever thought about doing a cake like that again. See my Grandma was a wonderful cook and fab at decorating. She would make the best Shortbread around and then declare, "I just whipped it up." Have you ever made Shortbread? If you have you know that you just don't whip it up.
This baking runs in my family and I have many stories that come to mind when I bake. Back to the Fruit Sugar Cookies though. At one point my youngest son says, "Mommy, when are we going to get that birthday present?" Who know that a 7 year old have better memory than I do? Well what seemed to be a peaceful morning of decorating became a rush, hurry, go to the mall, come back home then rush off to drive my son the birthday party. Wow, it was a full day of decorating kiwi's, oranges and watermelon.
One thing that I have come to understand about decorating these lovely tasting but pain in the butt cookies. Do not do it if you are rushed or not feeling patient. From wise words from a song that I would sing as a child
Have patience
have patience
don't be in such a hurry.
When you get impatient you only start to worry.
Remember, Remember that God is patient too
and think of all the time when others have to wait for you.
Enough said.
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