Re: Autumn 2015 | Page 45

Method 1.  ightly grease a couple of non-stick baking trays and set L aside. 2.  C  ream together the unsalted butter and caster sugar until just combined either in the bowl of a standing mixer or by hand. Add in the vanilla and egg, again mixing until just combined. Try not to mix too much as you don’t want to get too much air into the mixture. 3.  Next, add in the flour until the mixture comes together and forms a dough. You don’t want to mix it too much because you don’t want to incorporate air into the dough. 4.  Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up. 5.  nce the dough is firm, lightly dust the work surface O with plain flour and roll your dough out to a thickness of approximately 5mm. 6.  Using your cookie cutters, cut out the different shapes you want and place on the baking trays, making sure to leave gaps between them. Repeat as necessary, rolling the dough back into a ball and rolling it out again until you have no more dough left. 7. Place back in the fridge for another 30 minutes to allow them to firm up again. This helps stop them spreading when you cook them. In the meantime pre-heat the oven to 180c. 8.  Bake your cookies for approximately 10-12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown. They will be soft to the touch when they come out of the oven but set them to one side to cool down completely. 9. To make the icing put the egg white into a bowl and add in the icing sugar until you reach a soft peak consistency – if you touch the icing with the back of the spoon it forms a peak which will flop over but hold its shape. 10. Take your piping bag – you can buy these in some supermarkets or use a plastic freezer bag - and place the royal icing inside. Twist the open end closed to form a cone. 11. Pour your chosen sprinkles onto a small plate. Snip a 3-4mm hole off of the corner of your piping bag. Take a cookie and pipe a line around the edge of it. Don’t worry if you don’t have a steady hand it doesn’t need to be neat! 12. Dunk the cookie upside down into the sprinkles. The sprinkles will adhere to the royal icing then set aside to dry. Repeat with the rest of the cookies. B  y Fay Millar brightoncakes.com 43