August 30, 2015
I was looking for a Halloween cookie recipe recently and nothing was really jumping out at me other than the beautifully iced cookies that were way out of my league! I wanted something with a Halloween theme without being overly ghoulish as I had my two year old assistant to consider. Without being able to find exactly what I wanted to make I had the idea of using something I saw in last years Donna Hay Celebrate issue for Christmas and just changing the cookie cutters used to be Halloween themed. Voila! Beautiful Halloween cookies that look and taste delicious and I don't have to explain any creepiness to my little one. When she saw the finished product she thought they were "Incy Wincy Spider" and Max the cat (our cat is called Max) cookies. So sweet. Make sure you bake the cutouts also they are tasty little bite sized gems.
For even more of a Halloween twist these cookies would look awesome with a coffin, tombstone of spider web as the cookie shape instead of the square.
Here's my attempt at these cookies. I am sure with a bit of practise I can get them looking pretty darn good by Halloween. The recipe is below also.
Ready for the oven:
Out of the oven:
The finished product (with a bit more practice and a little less assistance from miss 2 I am sure they will look much neater!):
Don't forget the cut-outs:
Donna Hay's Jam Cookie Sandwiches Recipe:
125g unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (225g) plain flour, sifted
Topping:
Icing sugar for dusting
110g raspberry jam
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 6-8 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for a further 2-3 minutes or until well combined. Add the flour and beat until the mixture just comes together to form a smooth dough. Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper to 3mm thick and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Using a 6cm fluted square cutter, cut out 24 shapes from the dough. Using mini cookie cutters of your choice (I used a bat, spider, ghost and scary cat) cut shapes from the centre of half the squares, reserving the cut-outs. Place the squares and reserved cut-outs on 2 large lightly greased baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 10-12 minutes or until light golden. Allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust the cut out squares and cut-outs with icing sugar. Spread the plain squares with jam and sandwich with the cut out squares. Makes 12.
August 25, 2015
Recently searching (or procrastinating) on Pinterest I stumbled across a picture of these Redback spider cookies made by LilaLoa. I thought these were very appropriate for Halloween, but especially an Aussie halloween. I also loved her take on Halloween in general included in her post on decorating these cookies which you can check out here: LilaLoa's Halloween Spider Cookies. American Halloween traditions do seem to be becoming more popular here each year with families organising trick or treat events. You could make a batch of these not-too-creepy spider cookies and pop them into little cellophane bags for the little trick or treaters in your neighbourhood. I wonder if I should make some for my dad, who is terrified of spiders!
Do check out LilaLoa's website for so much cookie know-how you may never need to look anywhere else. Recipes, decorating tips and tutorials and much, much more.
Happy baking!
Lisa
August 05, 2015
Making Donna Hay's spiced vanilla reindeer cookies and Emmy's one job was to mix the cinnamon and mixed spice into the flour, this is the end result. The beanie was a non-negotiable. Apparently you need to wear this when you are two and helping in the kitchen! I have no idea how much flour we lost so I just topped it up a bit and the recipe still turned out great.
July 30, 2015
How long has it been since Christmas?? It is much closer to next Christmas than last and I have only just made Donna Hay's Spiced Vanilla Reindeers from last year's donna hay celebrate magazine. Better late than never hey! If you read my blog you might remember how excited I was when they used our baby deer cookie cutter to make these gorgeous cookies. I made one slight change to the recipe and substituted the flour with wholemeal spelt flour. The little reindeer's legs are quite fine so the chilling of the dough is essential to be able to cut them out neatly.
Here's my attempt!
Donna Hay's Spiced Reindeers Recipe:
125g unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (225g) plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
Icing:
½ cup (80g) icing sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons boiling water
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 6-8 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for a further 2-3 minutes or until well combined. Add the flour, cinnamon and mixed spice and beat until the mixture just comes together to form a smooth dough. Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper to 5mm thick and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Using a 7cm deer shaped cookie cutter, cut out 32 shapes, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Place on 2 large lightly greased baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. For the icing, mix to combine the icing sugar and water until smooth. Place in a piping bag fitted with a 2mm nozzle and pipe a nose and three tail spots on each cookie to decorate. Makes 32.
Delicious served with a piping hot cup of tea! YUMMY!
July 27, 2015
I am a subscriber to A Beautiful Mess and receive some gorgeous snail mail from them each month. They also have a fantastic blog and one entry last month really caught my eye. DIY clay cake toppers. Now with my collection of cookie cutters the possibilities here are pretty limitless but I think I will have to have a go at making a custom little cupcake topper for my husband for Father's Day. I will be sure to post more on that project as it progresses.
The step by step instructions for this one are here. Be sure to check out their shop for the Happy Mail and Messy Box subscriptions also. If you love scrap-booking you are gonna love these!
Don't forget I would love to hear your thoughts so drop me a line anytime. info@cookiecuttershop.com.au
Happy (clay) baking!
Lisa
January 09, 2015
YAY! We're in print again!
The new issue of Homespun Magazine went on sale yesterday 8th January and we are proud to say that a couple of our cookie cutters were featured in their "window shopping" section. This month's section had a hedgehog theme and after picking up my copy yesterday there are a couple of other hedgehog related items I also think I now need to pick up!
The hedgehog cookie cutters featured can be checked out now by clicking on the links below:
http://cookiecuttershop.com.au/products/hedgehog-echidna-7cm-cookie-cutter-c1399
http://cookiecuttershop.com.au/products/hedgehog-or-echidna-4-5cm-cookie-cutter-c1675
Thanks to the team at Homespun for helping to share the cookie love. You can check out the mag's Facebook page here and you can even read the magazine online if you wish.
Happy baking (and crafting)!
Lisa
December 24, 2014
Thank you so much for your support this last year. We would like to take this opportunity to send our best wishes to you and your family for a wonderful Christmas with love from Lisa, Trent and Emmy at Cookie Cutter Shop.
Our office will be closed from Wednesday 24th December at 2pm with last orders being processed and posted around midday and will reopen on Monday 29th December. Orders will be processed each business day as normal during the Christmas and New Year period.
If you need to contact us we will be checking emails infrequently during this period so please email us at info@cookiecuttershop.com.au and we will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can.
November 07, 2014
To say I was a little excited when donna hay magazine purchased some cookie cutters from us a little while ago would be an understatement. I was over the top out of control excited when I picked up their Celebrate issue and saw one of our cutest little cookie cutters had made a cookie for the magazine. And not just a photo in the magazine. THE FRONT COVER!!! Wow. My favourite food magazine has used my favourite cookie cutter to make a cookie for the front cover. I think the owner of the newsagent thought I was slightly coo-coo but moments like this do not happen often and I couldn't possibly contain myself. Check out the iPad version of the cover where the cookie comes to life here: Cute Cookie Alert
Our little deer cookie cutter has been flying out the door since the magazine came out on Monday, so much so that we have unfortunately sold out. Don't worry though we have more stock on the way and you can secure yours now if you like by placing it on back order. We expect the stock around the 17th November. The link to backorder yours now is here: backorder me a cute deer cutter please - UPDATE!! Now back in stock available here
Our set of 10 stars has also sold out and is also on it's way back in with the deers. If you wish to recreate the gorgeous Christmas tree on the cover you can backorder this now by going to this link: Set of 10 Stars backorder This set features the 6 pointed stars which is very helpful in making a perfectly symmetrical tree like the one on the cover. They are also made from stainless steel so are dishwasher safe. - UPDATE!!! Now back in stock available here.
There have been a few other cookie cutters from our range used inside the magazine but I will let you have the fun of discovering these yourself. The magazine really is jam packed with beautiful images and recipes. Please contact us if you want help finding cookie cutters for any of the recipes.
Thank you to everyone who has supported Cookie Cutter Shop on our journey so far. Wishing you much fun with your Christmas baking. I can't wait to try out the recipe in the mag for spiced vanilla reindeers and also the salted chocolate gingerbread men. YUM!!
Happy baking!
Lisa
August 13, 2014
We are very excited about getting these Munchstaches mustache cookie cutter and stamper sets in.
Mustache making cookie cutters to create the perfect look. Try ‘em on for size, then eat ‘em! One side cuts the shape and the other stamps the details. 5 assorted stamp/cutters in each set including the IMPERIAL, the BARON, the BRISTLE BRUSH, the WOOLFORD and the WALRUS. Which one suits you best?
Moulded from durable, food-safe, plastics and packed in a reusable storage tray.
Approximate size of each mustache cookie cutter is 10cm wide x 5cm tall.
These could make some perfect cookies for Father's Day gifts. Check them out here.
May 28, 2014
Our cookie cutters have recently been reviewed by Jasmine (with the help of her toddler) from babymusthaves.net. Babymusthaves.net review all manner of baby and toddler related products and I have found some great tips on their website so please check it out when you get a minute. To say I am thrilled with the result is an understatement. You can read the review here and even watch a short video.
The highlight of the review I think is that the cookie cutters were put through their paces with a variety of different foods and they passed with flying colours.
Remember, cookie cutters aren't just for cookies!
April 25, 2014
I am the first to admit that although I have been collecting and using cookie cutters for many years my decorating attempts have really been few and far between and dare I say lack lustre. This year one of my goals is to learn to decorate my cookies like a pro! Well at least make them look a lot prettier than they have in the past. My daughter's first birthday is coming up in a couple of months so that is giving me some inspiration.
I have found an awesome blog by SweetSugarBelle.com on how to outline and flood cookies with icing which I am going to follow.
Is anyone else keen to give this a try? I would love to hear how you go. There is a great tip for using icing bags which should save many hours cleaning in this blog also.
We sell icing nozzles and bags in our store as well as our awesome range of cookie cutters. We have over 1,100 cookie cutters now and the range is still growing. Our next shipment of new cookie cutters and decorating supplies is due in from Germany any day now so keep a look out on our site for the new shapes.
Until my next update, happy baking! Lisa
February 21, 2014
We have an exciting new product to compliment our range of cookie cutters, the cookie stamp. Available in 3 different designs there is a stamp for everyone.
I LOVE YOU COOKIE STAMP
Stamp your home made cookies with "I Love You" to really get the message across! As if baking for your loved one wasn't enough this cookie stamp is really taking it to the next level. Imagine the kids faces when they open their lunch box to these cookies. Great for anniversary or valentines day presents also.
HOME MADE COOKIE STAMP
Stamp your home made cookies with "Home Made" to add that special touch to them. Great for a bake sale or just for refilling the biscuit barrel.
EAT ME COOKIE STAMP
Well you don't have to tell me twice! What is better than a freshly cooked home made cookie? Not much but one that screams "Eat me" is a winner in our books.
You can find the cookie stamps here.