That's not all... I made 20 Peppa door gifts...
That's less than half of them!
Five of each: Suzy sheep, Candy cat, Rebecca rabbit and Danny dog (iced a couple of days before the rest of the friends)...
All these took me a few days to complete!
The recipe for brown sugar cookies and royal icing is the same one that I have been using. I will just highlight some pointers and share some works-in-progress pictures of my hard work.
Making cookie base
As you can see, all the cookies are not standard shaped and you probably can't find a set of cookie cutters that are that specialized. I made my own template by printing out the figures to the size that I want and then tracing the outline on a rigid clear plastic sheet. Cut out the outline and I have a washable and reusable template :). Here are some pics of it in use which I didn't get to record in pictures for my Barney cookies...
I needed to use 3-4 times the quantity specified in the recipe link as this is quite a large batch of cookies.
Cookie pops
It's my first time making cookie pops but this concept is not new. In order to make these, I stacked 2 cookie cut-outs with an ice-cream stick sandwiched in between. Make sure that enough of the stick is sandwiched to ensure a good grip. Instead of rolling the dough to 5-6mm, I rolled each piece to 4mm such that the cookie is about 8mm thick when the two pieces are stacked together. Lightly press the two layers of cookie cut-outs together to ensure a good seal. Baking time is about 14-15 minutes for Peppa and George (small pops, ~1.5-2") and about 18-20 minutes for Daddy and Mummy pig (large pops, ~3"). Best gauge for baking time is still visual. When the cookies are lightly browned, they are ready.
Icing the cookies
Nothing really new to mention here except that the rosy cheeks should be iced while the base icing of the head is still wet. Hubby commented that Danny dog looks like he has a large pimple on his face! I iced Danny before all the other friends and did my usual wait-till-bottom-icing-dries-before-icing-on-top. You can see the difference in the results from the earlier photos.
I used flooding consistency throughout. It helped to prepare a big batch of icing (royal icing made from about 400g of icing sugar) and refrigerate it. I kept the remaining icing in an airtight container with clingwrap touching the surface. Remember to stir the icing before use each time. Royal icing can be refrigerated for month but try to finish using as soon as you can as fresher icing is better to work with.
Fine features like the limbs and facial features were painted on using toothpick or a fine paintbrush. Charcoal and cocoa powder were used whenever there's black and brown involved. I only used a Wilton #2 tip for outline of the Peppa door gift. Everything else was just piped from a ziplock bag with a small hole cut at the corner.
Last but very important tip...always keep a damp paper towel handy to wipe off any mistakes! All these are iced by freehand drawing so there's bound to be some mistakes. Unless you are a superb artist, which I am not :p.
Here are some works-in-progress pictures...
Danny dog
Candy cat
Suzy sheep
Rebecca rabbit
Peppa and family
Peppa pig
Yes it takes an awful lot of patience to do this but the end result is rewarding :). If you don't have the patience to do all this artwork, do try this soft cookie recipe anyway because it is simple, not too sweet, yummy and stays yummy for a month in airtight container. I have mummy friends asking for the recipe for the cookies after their kids can't stop eating them.
Peppa with birthday message!
With love,
Phay Shing
This is so lovely♥ Congratz!
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
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