Cut-out Cookies

Yes more cookies. But I decided to make these because I wanted to try out the icing. You see I've been working on cake decorating with some of the girls at my church and this week we will be decorating cookies. I was planning on making royal icing but had no eggs (probably should have checked that before I started!) instead I used a simple glaze frosting instead. It turned out pretty good and will be the one I use this week with the girls. The last three weeks we have decorated cupcakes and mini-cakes, and I have learnt that simple is best, master cake decorators they aren't, but they sure are having fun! Next week will be out final week when they decorate their own masterpieces, can't wait to see what they come up with.

More great recipes this week:

• Mint and chocolate has got to be one of my favourite flavour combinations. Try these Homemade Thin Mint Cookies from Bringing Home the Bakin'
• Healthy Chocolate Cake? Well maybe with this Chocolate Carrot Cake from Mochachocolata Rita
• Coconut and Lime has a great recipe for Homemade Sno-balls
• At the Bakers Bench needs to be congratulated for the amazing effort put into this Real Coconut Cake. Well Done!
• And who does love a surprise? Let's Get Stupid Together gives everyone a surprise with these Surprise Muffins

Cut-out Cookies

Recipe from taste.com.au

Ingredients

125g butter, room temperature

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup custard powder

Frosting

1 cup icing sugar

1 tsp soft butter or margarine

1-2 tablespoon milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

2. Use and electric beater to beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in milk and vanilla extract. Fold in the flour and custard powder.

3. Press the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 3o minutes to rest.

4. Divide the dough into manageable portions. Roll out one portion on a sheet of baking paper to about 1cm thick. Use cutters to cut shapes and place on trays.

5. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool for 5 minutes on the trays before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Frosting: Mix ingredients together, slowly adding milk until a smooth spreadable consistency is reached.

Chocolate Glazed Donut Muffins

Mmmmm donuts. I love donuts. There really is no better food (I'm sure I've said that before about other things though!) But making them from scratch? Aint going to happen! So when I saw this recipe I knew I had to give it a try just to see how realistic it was. Well I'm not sure about it being like a donut but it is pretty good. The flavour and heaviness of the cake is great and the glaze is amazing. Definitely one to make again.

• Who doesn't need a simple chocolate cake recipe? Try this Pantry Chocolate Cake from Tortatebukura's Blog
• Love Joy the Baker. It has been a while since I have highlighted one of her recipes but thought it was time about with these Chocolate Espresso Cookie Sandwiches
• The Cooking Photographer shares Cake Mix Chai Spice Cookies
• Anything mini has got to be good right? Check out Brioche Buttons from A Bowl of Mush
• Simple is sometimes always best. The Repressed Pastry Chef has Coconut Cake with Pineapple Filling

Chocolate Glazed Donut Muffins

Recipe from Elle's New England Kitchen

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp mixed spice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 eggs

1/4 cup canola oil

60g butter, melted

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Glaze

1/2 cup chocolate chips or melts

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon golden syrup

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C. Grease or line muffin pan.

2. Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

3. Mix in the eggs, oil, butter, milk and vanilla. Divide batter between muffin cups.

4. Bake for about 18 minutes or until tested comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Glaze: Melt the ingredients together over low heat or in the microwave, stirring often.

Pear and Raspberry Bread

Feeling silent today, not sure what to share with you today other then this recipe. Easy to throw together, my only suggestion is that it was a little too moist, maybe reduce the puree pear amount slightly. Also my baking time was about 50 minutes not the 60 minutes called for in the recipe. It also sunk a little when cooling. Despite all that is still a good recipe.

Check out these recipes too.

• Pete Bakes! has some Strawberry Cupcakes with real strawberries.
• More raspberry with the Chocolate Raspberry Cake from Sweet Sensations
• Still on the fruit theme Greedy Gormand has Orange Walnut Cake
• This post is what food blogging is about, documenting the lessons learned. Check out the Chocolate Meringue Cake at
• The Apartment Kitchen has quick and easy Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

Pear and Raspberry Bread

Recipe from Coles Magazine Winter 2009

Ingredients

825g can pear halves, drained, juice reserved

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 15cm x 25cm loaf pan and line with non-stick baking paper.

2. Puree half of the pears and chop remaining. Measure pear puree in a jug and make up to 1 cup with reserved juice.

3. Place dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add egg, oil, raspberries, pear puree mixture and chopped pears. Gently fold together, until just combined. Fill prepared loaf pan. Bake for 60-65 minutes, until cooked when tested. Cool bread in pan. Store in airtight container.

Chocolate Roll-out Cookies

I made it back into the kitchen! And what a great time I had. I spent about 6 hours in the kitchen on Saturday and it was excellent. The huge pile of dishes that is still sitting there isn't so great, but worth it. I had a friend coming over for dinner that night so as per her request I made lasagne and her all-time favourite dessert, tiramisu. I also whipped up some cupcakes and these cookies. I recently 'borrowed' my mothers 40 year-old rolling pin and put it to good use with these cookies. My rolling skills need a little work but I'm ready to work on it if I keep getting stuff like this made! Simple chocolate cookies which I decorated with white, milk and dark chocolate as well as hundreds and thousands. The aim was that they would go to an ice hockey game I was going to (yes, ice hockey in Australia!) but they were being eaten before I got out of the house, so cupcakes went to the game instead (I'll try and get that recipe up sometime this week). The chocolate was easy to apply to the cookies, I dipped them in as well as spread with a spatula and both techniques worked well. Let your creativity run with these, and use up any leftover chocolate you might have.

A few recipes from other blogs to check out:

• Who doesn't love brownies. Try Fudgy Mocha-Toffee Browies from La Cuisine de Helene
• Picky Cook has Raspberry-topped Lemon Muffins
• If its giant its got to be good right? Culinary Concoctions by Peabody has Giant Ginger Cookies
• And Pecan Pie Cookies can be found at Elizabeth's Edible Experience

Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies

Recipe from Australian Women's Weekly Cookies

Ingredients

125g butter

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 cup self-raising flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

chocolate and hundreds and thousands to decorate

Method

1. Beat butter, sugar and egg in small bowl with electric mixer until combined. Sift dry ingredients, in two batches.

2. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth; roll dough between sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Cover; refrigerate 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and oven trays; line with baking paper.

4. Using 5cm round cutters, cut rounds from dough. Place on oven trays.

5. Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

6. Spread tops of cookies with chocolate, sprinkle with hundreds and thousands. Set at room temperature.