Saturday, April 25, 2009

Taking on the World....




That's what a group of dancers from McGing (the school where I teach Irish dancing) did just 2 weeks ago. The World championships for Irish dancing are held every year during Easter week and this year, for the first time ever, they were held in the United States. Also, for the first time, a group of dancers from our school won FIRST PLACE!! Our junior choreography team took first place. We also had a soloist take first in the under 21 competition. Needless to say, it's a pretty exciting time at our dance studio.

To celebrate their win the choreography team is having a party/lock-in at the dance studio tonight and I thought it was a great excuse to bake something cute. I decided to make sugar cookies with a world on them. Turns out, making world cookies with royal icing takes a royal amount of time. I wound up doing half royal icing worlds and half buttercream "1's". I think they turned out pretty well, but I wish they were a little smoother. Next time I will use a smaller piping tip for the outline, I think it will be easier to work with. I'm also making another treat which I will update later today.


Sugar Cookies
(source: Good Things Catered)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. powdered sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 Tbsp lemon zest
5 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Powdered sugar, for rolling

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes.
-Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly.
-Add vanilla, almond, and lemon zest.
-Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time.
-Do not over mix, this process should take about one minute.
-Chill dough for up to a week in the fridge, or roll out and cut right away.
-Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake cookies for 7-8 minutes.
-Wait until cookies are cooled before icing.


Royal Icing
(Source: Annie's Eats, she has great instructions for working with the royal icing)

Royal Icing
Ingredients:
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. meringue powder
5 tbsp. water



6 comments:

  1. These look AWESOME!! Great job!

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  2. Those are adorable!

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  3. Those are very cute, I did royal icing once and also got "tired"

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  4. These are so cute!! Man I never have the patience to decorate things like this lol.

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  5. Congrats to your girls on the win! How exciting! And the cookies look awesome. Glad you had a successful first try with royal icing, and I promise, it gets MUCH easier with practice :)

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