Valentine's Day Cookies?

Hey Guys,

So, I took a long time to upload this post purely because I am quite disappointed with the content. Don't get me wrong, I tried damn hard to get these suckers perfect but I am just not skilled enough and they definitely don't look as good as I had hoped they would.  Anyhoo, let's just get on with it shall we.  

This is what I was attempting to make!

For Valentines day, I attempted these wet on wet royal icing techniques and unfortunately failed miserably.  Firstly I had to purchase the ingredients and utensils, so off I went to my nearest grocery store and bought two packets of Icing sugar and food colouring for the icing and caster sugar, rice flour and plain flour for the shortbread.  I also bought a pack of 12 disposable decorating bags and three tip sets.  Everything else I luckily had in my cupboard!  

So, to start I prepared and baked the shortbread following the instructions, however I forgot to turn the oven back to 150degrees Celsius (I blame this on the fact that I had been awake since 4am for work).  So unfortunately the biscuits were almost burnt after 20mins, so I turned the temperature back and put them back in for a further 10mins, took them out and let them cool for a good hour or more.  Then onto the icing, I have never used royal icing before so you can say I am a complete beginner when it comes to these techniques and it definitely shows.  

For the icing I used one egg white, half a teaspoon of lemon juice and one and a half cups pure icing sugar, sifted and I added dye until I had my desired colours.  Mixing this until it was smooth, I then poured each different batch of coloured icing into three different icing bags, sealing the top with a rubber band.  

   

 Then came the decorating... Not all of them are that bad, but if I could do it again I feel like I would be much better at it. It was hard to know how much icing to put on the biscuit so that I had enough to cover it but not over flow.  I also found it difficult because I didn't know how long it would take for the icing to set so it was a real rushed job on each of the biscuits.  My favourite is definitely the white with red and pink in the top left picture.  It's probably the neatest and cutest.  Another weird thing that I found though was that when it came to eating them the next day the icing smelt like egg, I absolutely hate the smell of egg so I didn't like it as everyone probably wouldn't.  However the recipe said nothing about adding vanilla essence but if I were to try it again I definitely would be adding something to try and mask the smell of the egg.  I used the sharp point of a knife to run through the icing to achieve the desired look wiping after each use however sometimes the icing wouldn't quite sit where I put it.  All in all I don't like how they turned out but would definitely be willing to try them again, however I would definitely change up the recipe a bit and also take my time as I know I have a fair amount of time before the icing actually sets.  

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and if you guys do try it out be sure to tag me on instagram or send a picture to my facebook and let me know how you went? If I try them again I'll be sure to let you know! Hope you guys are having a marvelous week and are enjoying my posts just as much as I am!

Until Next Time

BrittanieDe-Ann xoxo