September Daring Bakers' Challenge

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

We could decorate them however we wanted but the theme had to be September. So I took the fashionista approach and decorated my cookies with september outfits. The weather gets colder and we switch from comfy and laid back flipflops and mini tank tops, to high heels and dresses. Scarves, hats, and of course our best friend when the weather gets chilly.. starbucks coffee!!

I started out with this recipe for sugar cookies:

Basic Sugar Cookies:
200g Butter, at room temperature ( I actually used salted to bring out a little more flavor)
400g All Purpose Flour
200g  Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp flavoring such as vanilla extract, I used lemon extract.

Directions
• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming
creamy in texture.

• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the sifted flour and mix on low until the mixture crumbles together.

Pour the dough onto plastic wrap and wrap it. Press down to form a rectangle. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

• Once chilled, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. You may need to add extra flour if the dough breaks as you roll it or if it sticks to the rolling pin.
• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.

• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets or silpat (mi favorite) and refrigerate for  30mins to an hour.
• Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Bake about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies. They should still feel soft because they firm up when they come out of the oven. they should be blonde underneath whete the cookie touches the parchment.
• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in
some cookies being baked before others are done.
• Leave to cool on cooling racks.

• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.
• Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decorated
cookies can last up to a month.

I decided to use pink as the main color since it's my favorite color.

And Taadaa! It's a lot of work to ice all these individual cookies but they do look stunning don't they?!

Bring on the Next Month's Challenge!!