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It sure is wonderful to have a teenage daughter who enjoys creative pursuits, and lately we have been bonding over baking and brush lettering. The baking is her department though, I'm just a spectator of sorts! When I saw this really cute class for online cookie decorating on brit and co. I knew my daughter would love it, and so I purchased it for her as Hanukkah gift. And yes, indeed she was thrilled, as who wouldn't want to make the most adorable cookies ever? Now, as it turns out, making those adorable royal icing cookies is something one has to work at, which I knew, having attempted it myself once, so I do think that getting expert advice from someone who really knows the ins and outs of this particular baking experience is well worth it. No need to make mistake after mistake when you could be using that time just practicing your icing making and icing skills!
These cookies are my daughter's first attempt, and are somewhat on the simple side as we quite honestly ran out of time. We wrapped each cookie in cellophane tied on each end with a silver ribbon and placed one on each plate last shabbos, when our table was packed with guests for Hanukkah. The table looked amazing and some of the guests where already eating their cookie before the main course was served! We really weren't sure whether the cookies were more for decoration as opposed to being actually good tasting (especially since we couldn't use butter as the cookies would be eaten after a meat meal) but the guests all raved about the cookies and we even had to bring out some more as one guest ate his cookie as well as someone elses!
The little hearts that sort of look like dreidels are made using the wet on wet royal icing technique. One simply pipes a white dot onto the wet blue icing, and then drags a toothpick down through the dot to make a heart, and then back up to give the heart a stem. The spider web effect is made by piping concentric circles and then dragging a toothpick through the circles. So much fun and a quick way to decorate cookies with royal icing when one is pressed for time. (This wasn't part of the class, just our own little solution given that the super cute cookies require time and patience, neiher of which we had when these were made......)
Like I said, this is just the first attempt, my daughter has already moved on to much more advanced decorating, which I'll share with you next week. In the mean time, if you feel like treating yourself, or know a teenager who would love to get into cookie decorating, head on over to brit and co. and sign up for this online cookie decorating class, holiday time is the perfect time to start practicing and there will likely be lots of folks around to eat all the mistakes! Oh, and just by the way, you have nothing to loose as if you aren't 100% satisfied with the class there is a money back guarantee. Go for it!