Cakes For Romantic Occasions (10 page)

The cookies can be flavoured in several different ways. Add the following ingredients to the basic recipe:

Vanilla – add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.

Lemon – add the zest of one lemon.

Orange – add the zest of one orange.

Chocolate – replace 50g (2oz) of the plain flour with organic cocoa powder.

tip
If you are not going to ice and decorate the cookies, sprinkle them with a little golden granulated sugar for a crunchy texture when baked.

one
Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F/Gas Mark 4). Cream the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer until pale and creamy, then beat in the eggs until well combined.

two
Sift in the plain flour, baking powder and chosen flavouring and mix on a low speed until the dough forms. If you feel the dough is a little too sticky, add a tiny amount of flour.

three
Half the dough, form into balls, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least an hour to make the dough easier to work with.

four
Place one ball of dough on a floured surface (
a
), sprinkle a little extra flour on top of the dough and roll out to about 0.5cm (¼in) thick.

five
Using your chosen cutters, cut out the cookie shapes (
b
). Repeat steps four and five with the second ball of dough.

six
Place the cookies onto a greased baking tray (
c
) and bake in the centre of the oven for 12–15 minutes until golden brown.

seven
When cooked, remove the tray from the oven and use a palette knife to lift the cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely (
d
).

There are a number of ways to decorate a cookie, some simpler than others. You could just dust them with a little icing sugar or cocoa powder, or you can cover them with rolled-out sugarpaste or royal icing.

This technique gives you an immediate flat, dry surface onto which you can then add further decorations if desired. This is a soft icing that doesn’t set hard.

one
Roll out the sugarpaste to a thickness of approximately 3mm (1⁄16in) and cut out a shape using the same cutter that was used to make your cookies (
a
).

two
To help the sugarpaste to stick, brush the cookie with a little seedless jam, lemon curd or icing sugar mixed with water, depending on the flavour of your cookie.

three
Carefully place the sugarpaste shape onto the cookie (
b
) and smooth the edges of the icing with your fingertips.

This method creates cookies that have a hard, crispy coating when dry. When the icing is still wet, decorate the cookies with piped sugar pearls, sugar flowers or silver balls to complement the main cake design.

one
Mix a little royal icing to a soft peak consistency (see page 26). Fill a piping bag with a no.1.5 nozzle and the icing. Pipe a steady outline around each cookie shape (
a
).

two
Mix some further royal icing with some lemon juice or water to a runny consistency. Place the icing in a piping bag, snip the tip off the end of the bag and flood the centres of the cookies with icing (
b
).

three
Use a small paintbrush to brush the icing up to the piped outline, being careful not to let the icing overflow around the edges (
c
).

The Forget-me-not has been my favourite flower ever since I can remember, and their evocative, romantic name makes them all the more appealing. They grew in abundance in the garden of my childhood home and I wanted to capture the beauty of these tiny blossoms with this exquisite design. This cake is ideal to share with your loved ones at a special gathering.

one
Dowel the bottom tier and stack the cakes (see pages 24–25). Fix the pale pink satin ribbon around the base of each tier with a little royal icing. Make sure that the joins line up at the back of the cakes.

two
Mix a little ice blue food colouring and a tiny amount of grape violet with the white flowerpaste to make the Forget-me-not blue. Roll out the icing about 1mm (
¹
⁄16in) think and cover it with a stay-fresh plastic mat so that it doesn’t dry out.

three
Cut out the small flowers using the plunger cutter and form them on the flower foam pad (
a
). Make approximately 20 flowers for each cluster of flowers. For a 12cm (5in) and 20cm (8in) round cake you will need 12 clusters of flowers.

SERVES
About 50

MATERIALS

One 12cm (5in) and one 20cm (8in) round white iced cake, each set onto a round cake board the same size as the cake
2.5cm (1in) pale pink satin ribbon
White flowerpaste, 150g (5oz)
White royal icing (see page 26)
Food colouring: ice blue, grape violet, spruce green and melon yellow
EQUIPMENT

No.1.5 icing nozzle

Leaf icing nozzle

Piping bags

Small blossom plunger cutter
Stay-fresh plastic mat

Flower foam pad

Scriber needle or pin