With vivid colours and bold patterns, spring decorating brings a much-needed boost to the spirits. From pink polka-dotted rain boots on puddle-jumping children, to vases filled with brilliant red and yellow tulips, colour rejuvenates our winter-weary bodies and souls.
With Easter on its way, we have the perfect opportunity to surround ourselves with colour--even in our baking. Easter baking can be a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. Take these homemade Easter egg-shaped cookies, for example. Topped with colourful icings, candies and a pretty spring ribbon as the finishing touch, these cookies are as beautiful as they are tasty.
Wrapped in cellophane and tied with a length of ribbon, gourmet Easter cookies are terrific treats to make for friends and family. And young guests invited to your Easter feast will delight in decorating their own cookies.
Bake the cookies in advance of the party and have everything set up on a table lined with a heavy duty plastic cloth. Pour candies into small bowls and spoon icing into snack-sized resealable bags. At party time, snip a corner from each icing bag. Now the icing can be piped onto the cookie with much less mess.
To make cookies that look as great as they taste, use your favourite sugar cookie recipe or follow the one given below.
Easter sugar cookie recipe
Ingredients
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3-5 drops food colouring (optional)
Preparation
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the egg and vanilla. Squeeze in a few drops of food colouring. Choose an Easter colour such as pink, purple, green, blue or yellow. Stir dry ingredients into the batter.
- On a floured surface, roll the dough to about 1/8-inch thickness. Cut egg shapes using an oval cookie cutter. Bake at 350 F for about 10 minutes (baking times will vary due to cookie size, thickness, your baking sheet and your oven. Keep an eye on your cookies to prevent over baking).
- If you’re adding ribbon to your cookies, use a drinking straw to punch two side-by-side holes, about a ½-inch apart near the top of the cookie while it is still warm from the oven. Set the cookies on wire racks to cool.
- Once cool, decorate the cookies by piping on icing or by adding glaze (see icing recipes). Use a piping bag or a snack-sized resealable bag with one corner snipped to squeeze designs directly onto your cookies. Glaze can be spooned, brushed or drizzled onto the cookies. Cut colourful mini jelly beans in half and use these as embellishments (use icing as glue to set them in place). Add sugar sprinkles and more.
- Once the icing has hardened, add a ribbon as the finishing touch. Cut lengths of colourful ribbon to between six and eight inches. Pinch one end of the ribbon and poke it through the first hole at the back of the cookie. Pinch the other end of the ribbon and poke it through the second hole. Carefully pull the ribbon tails until they are even, and tie. Trim the ends if needed and, to prevent fraying, very carefully use a barbecue lighter to lightly singe each ribbon end.
Icing or glaze? Choose your cookie topping.
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