"Secret of the Sea" Sugar Cookie

It's "Secret of the Sea" a unit of work doing in Bella's class this term. They're investigating sea life. And they will be looking at the sea creatures and how they rely on each other protection, the food chain in the sea, safety in and around the sea and why and how we care for the sea.


It came up to my mind to put this theme up into Bella's birthday party at her class..... I made those cookies with the recipe from Peggy Porschen’s book Pretty Party Cake, she makes cookies and cakes for the high profile clients, some of them are celebrities ... : )
Why not give a taste what celebrities eat on their party ?? why not.

Here’s what she said on her book about her recipes:
“The recipes I have developed give me cookies and cakes that not only taste really nice but have good texture, and - although light- are solid enough to make decent bases for the decoration. Always bake equally sized cookies together to make sure that they cook In the same time. If you mix different size, the smaller ones are cooked when the larger ones are still raw in the middle.”

BASIC SUGAR COOKIES
Makes about 25 medium size cookies

200g unsalted soft butter
200g caster sugar (aku pakek gula halus)
1 egg lightly beaten
400g plain flour, plus more for dusting

Optional flavours:
For vanilla cookies, add seeds from 1 vanilla pod
For lemon cookie, add finely grated zest of lemon
For orange cookie, add finely grated zest of orange
For chocolate cookie, replace 50g of the plain flour with 50g of cocoa powder

Method:
1.With paddle attachment of electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar and choosen flavouring until well mixed and just creamy in the texture. Do not overwork, or the cookies will spread during baking.

2. Beat in the egg until well combined. Add the flour and mix on low speed until a dough forms. Gather into ball, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour.

3.Place the dough on floured surface and knead briefly. Using two ¼ inch (5mm) guide sticks, roll out to an even thickness.

4. Use cookie cutter to cut out shapes and using a palette knife, lay on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Chill again for about 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 180 degress celcius, gas 4.

5. Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on size, until golden brown at the edges. Let cool on wire rack.

The royal icing ,-I used- was not made from meringues powder , it’s not available in cake deco shop here in Melbourne, the shop keeper said it banned in Australia, you know how oz’s custom here.. very tight man…

I used mixture of 1 white egg whipped until firm and 250g pure icing mixture and lemon juice. I didn’t mix all icing mixture at once though, just until I got the consistency I needed. Well there will be two consistency, for this under sea theme.
Soft peak consistency (for piping lines, dots and borders) and runny consistency ( for filling in the centers of spaces).

The cutter, thanks to shopkeeper in World Cuisine shop, Elizabeth st, who gave me the idea to use the star shape cutter, to make star fish. It went well.


The packaging. This idea came on the last day of the preparation. Using this noodle box available in the party shop and supa shop heheh... I think it smart enough, ... And thanks to Vania, the idea to put the pop corn as a "bumper", I love it.