Back-art Challenge

Do not forget to enter for the $100 giveaway on this blog. Open internationally! Link available here!

A couple of days ago, I saw an ad for an online cake supplies store in Switzerland in my google ads. Now I know I shouldn't be clicking my own ads and lay claim on a few cents, but this was the first time I saw a much needed cake supply store based locally. back-art.ch is the name of the store and they have some wonderful baking equipment, moulds, colours and the whole paraphernalia! I contacted them and the wonderful Veronica proposed a challenge - a Bake Art challenge. She sent me some surprise items and asked me to use them all in one recipe.

I waited a couple of days, and there it was in my post - a box of goodies from back-art.ch

What did I find in there? Fondant, cookie cutters and some beautiful peach shimmer. It was lovely - just had a bit of a hitch. The cookie cutters were in the shape of buddha and an elephant. I scratched my head to come up with an idea for a cake using the two. I asked my hubby for ideas - Darling, where would you find an elephant and buddha together? He thought and said "In your blog" Haha..very funny i said.

That didn't help at all!

Veronica again came to my rescue - "Think cookies à la Peggy Porschen". But of course! I can make any shape and size of cookies and still pile them all together - it still is one recipe :-)

So there it was. My homemade cookies as buddha and elephant. Hope you like it.

I made cookie dough with the recipe below, covered buddha with fondant, and made royal icing for the polka dotted cloth on the elephant. Here are the recipes, and thank you back-art.ch for challenging my decoration skills!

What would you all have created if you were presented with this challenge. Let me know!

For the cookie dough

3 cups (390 grams) flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, softene

1 cup (200 grams) sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Icing

1 and about 2/3 cup softed powdered/icing sugar

1 egg white/15 g meringue powder*
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

* I would much rather prefer the merigue powder since we are not cooking the egg whites. Try to it and if not, pasteurized eggs would be fine too.

For the cookies:

In a bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mix (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (1 cm). Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter. Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Work quickly as the dough starts to warm up as you work with it and will tend to crumble apart. You could also place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.

Bake cookies for about 10 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Get creative and frost with icing.

Let the frosting dry before storing/serving.

Share