Lately.....

How are you going? 

I feel like life has gotten a little busier in the last couple of weeks with lots of birthdays and celebrations happening this month.

We've been enjoying this gorgeous weather that Sydney has been having. Warm and beautiful through the day and cooling down at night. Perfect! I hope it hangs around a little longer.

My flowers from Mother's Day are still going strong. I can't decide which is my favourite, pink or white flowers. I guess I'll alternate between the two :)

The boys have been loving Nutella toasts topped with fruit for afternoon tea.

I have been using the Go-To Skincare range for the last couple of months and really love it. My favourites are the face cleanser, lip balm and exfoliating swipeys. Have you tried it?

I learnt to cross stitch on the weekend at a workshop run by Libby of Threadfolk held at Little Lane Workshops.  It was so fun once you get into the rhythm of it. I need to find some time to sit down and make some headway on my little family.

Motivational messages always!

What have you been up to?

How to decorate Easter Sugar Cookies.

Last week I went to a Cookie Decorating workshop at Little Lane Workshops run by Karen of Sweet n Pretty. She does amazing cakes and cookies so I was interested to learn if she had any tips on how to decorate cookies and work with royal icing as I had never tried it before.

Plus I had just bought a whole load of cookie cutters for 20c each so I thought I had better learn how I could use them!

Karen had baked the cookies for us in various Easter shapes and taught us how to mix the icing, the different consistency needed and some tricks to ensure a smooth icing and how to use a piping bag.

She made it look easy and it was great to see someone do it in front of you first and then have a chance to have a go yourself.

Here are a few photos of the night -

While our cookies were drying it was lovely to wander through the workshop space as it also doubles as a store with various clothes, homewares and furniture to browse. Champagne was on offer and it was great to chat to the other ladies doing the workshop.

Once our cookies were ready to go we boxed them up and headed home. I was so happy with how mine turned out! The royal icing really hides shaky hands and wonky lines, I definitely need to practice making my decorating a bit smoother ;) Although the boys were very impressed when I showed them what I had made.

Karen gave us this vanilla sugar cookie recipe to use at home.

Vanilla Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

2 large eggs

100 grams white sugar

100 grams icing sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

200 greams butter softened in microwave until almost melted

600 grams plain flour

pinch of salt

How to make

Preheat oven to 170 degrees

In an electric mixer beat the eggs, white sugar and icing sugar until light and fluffy. This takes approximately 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Sift the flour add half of it to the egg and sugar mixture and blend until it looks thick and pasty. Add the softened butter and mix thoroughly.

Add the remaining flour - you may need to mix by hand to help form the dough. Refrigerate for at least an hour before rolling out and cutting the cookies.

Roll out the dough to 5mm thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut our shapes and transfer to a tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden - the cookies should be firm to touch. Cool on a wire rack before decorating.

*Note - make sure the dough is evenly rolled out and uniform before cutting the cookies. If there are any bumps in the cookie dough they will show through the icing.

Royal Icing

Ingredients

1 egg white

320g pure icing sugar sifted

Gel colours (optional)

Piping bag with number 2 tip nozzle

Karen has some more classes coming up at Little Lane Workshops including this cool succulent cupcake one!

Have you worked with royal icing before? Any tips on how to steady a shaky hand? ;)