Hello Everyone!
I’m Marta Torres – Royal Icing Cookie Artist and Welcome to MY Sweet World!
My Passion
It has been in my mind for quite a long time sharing with all of you tips, tricks and experiences on my cookie journey, and the moment has arrived. Will you join me? Really hopping you like the experience and I invite you to leave comments and questions on every post.
Let’s Start!!! Techniques can be taught and learnt no matter which part of the world we are in, but when we talk about products and/or ingredients, then the things might change a bit. What happens if we don’t have the right products, shall we give up? NO, I’m a true believer that we can somehow overcome those issues by adapting. If we keep in mind a few concepts that are essential in order to obtain the best results, maybe we can use what we have, adapting and “manipulating” somehow in order to suit our needs.
Let’s start from the beginning. What will we need prior decorating a cookie? a beautifully baked cookie, our canvas, a cookie that has two amazing sides and both can be used for decorating, exposing at the same time a beautiful bottom side. Will this be necessary, I mean, having both perfect sides….. What do you think? As a Client, how would you react at two equal and beautiful decorated cookies, having one the bottom perfectly baked, flat, no bumps, a very attractive one, and the other cookie, uneven, bumps… I guess I know the answer, the beautiful one right? So, will you join me on this task of baking a beautiful cookie?
Let’s check on the essential elements!
Flour – Types of flour: Flours are basically divided between, Cake Flour, Multipurpose Flour and Bread Flour, and the difference is on the percentage % of Protein/Gluten existent on each type, might vary slightly form brands and aged flours but not significantly. I’m talking about wheat flour.
Butter– Types of butter: Salted and unsalted, also important to check the amount of fat existent on the brands we are using. I do like to use an 80% to 82% fat content
Eggs – white, brown, small, medium, large, X-large
Sugar – Powder, granulated, white, brown
Flavours – extracts, essences, natural, artificial
Others – chocolate powder, chocolate chips, honey, sprinkles….
Leavenings: I don’t use on my cookies
What if we explore a bit each one of these ingredients? I’ll be back tomorrow with a new post, where pictures and explanations will help you to go through this process. Good baking and decorating!