Monday 13 February 2012

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

I had a day off last Friday so as Valentines Day was around the corner and Karl loved my attempt at sugar cookies so much the last time I made them, I thought I would give them another go.

Obviously for the theme of Valentine's Day I went for a heart shaped cookie. It did cross my mind before I started that a heart shape looks easier to ice than the butterfly shape I used last time (hooray!). To be honest though I ended up getting distracted and then I got a bit behind and I had plans in the evening so the whole day just felt a bit rushed! The outline was a bit easier to pipe (I still need alot more practice!) but I couldnt seem to get the consistancy of the royal icing quite right and on some cookies it just didnt flood right, plus I really wanted to spend alot more time decorating them but just didnt have the time..hey ho...they still look quite cute and Karl has eaten nearly all of them in 2 days so they can't have been that bad.

Still lots of room for improvement me thinks - I don't feel as though I have quite perfected the technique just yet! I had a trip to the cake shop on Saturday and bought myself a new piping nozzle which is alot thinner than the one I've been using and looks better made as well. Fingers crossed this will help...hmmm what shape cookie to try next?!!

Anyways..I hope you all have a fab Valentines Day whatever you've got planned! My lovely Karl is apparently cooking stir fry for my tea and we've bought a scrummy looking Gu dessert for afters (well I have to have a day off from baking sometimes!).

Thursday 9 February 2012

Oreo Brownies

Ever since I bought the Lorraine Pascale book, Baking Made Easy, I have been itching to make these Oreo Brownies. In all honesty I don't know why its taken me so long - you all know my obsession with Oreos! I remember watching Lorraine show how to make these in the tv series that went with the book and thinking what a genius combination!

So this weekend I finally got round to making them..why on earth did I not make these sooner?! The brownie recipe was gorgeously moist and super chocolatey and adding Oreos to the mix made them even better. If you don't have quite the same obsession as me for Oreos the recipe did make suggestions for other things that could be added, such as pecans. As I seem to have ended up with a cupboard full of Oreos (how did that happen?!) I think I can safely say I will be adding Oreos to mine for awhile.

I sent Karl off to work with the leftover brownies and apparently they were polished off pretty quickly. It seems the lads at his work also share my Oreo obsession!

To top it off..it made my day that when I tweeted to Lorraine Pascale on twitter that I'd made her brownies and how much I liked them, she tweeted back to say thanks!! It may have only been one word but it showed she'd taken the time to read my tweet and respond..hooray!