Dear Mummy, I love the under water world and biscuits, so imagine my delight at the thought of creating a combination of the two! Baking is always fun in our household and even though my mummy isn’t a great baker she does like to dabble every now and then. She constantly scourers the internet looking for easy ideas for baking with kids.

She’s heard about We Bake off twitter which is a new website set up to inspire others to share their creations and bake together. Sounds like a great resource for inspiration!

We Bake is the first baking social media platform that celebrates baking but also coaches and motivates bakers to do more of what they love. My mummy would love to learn some baking skills so is intrigued to find out more. Users can open a profile and share recipes, tips and advice with fellow bakers. Even though we’re not experts, we’re happy to inspire others, especially those that bake and make with ‘little helpers’.

The We Bake community is like a mix (excuse the pun) between Facebook and Instagram, but with 100% baking content! Anything that helps motivate my mummy to get more creative in the kitchen appeals to my daddy too! He loves when she makes sweet treats!

There are also plenty of competitions on We Bake and my mummy loves challenges and anything that pushes her out of her comfort zone. Currently there is a Bake Brighter Days community challenge which encourages people to share their bakes on the site for a chance to win some great prizes. Sounds good to us! We Bake is giving away a £50 Red Letter Days Voucher every day, so you’ve got lots of chances to win if you enter! We Bake is the community that rewards us baking and fingers crossed we win something!

Watch our video to see you making our cookies!

So without further ado this is one of our bakes. We’ve started off fairly simple as my mummy likes to bake with me and can’t make anything too complex when I’m helping her, or it will end in disaster or a soggy bottom!

Under the Sea Sugar Cookies

This is a great, easy recipe as the cookies keep their shape when baked and are perfect for decorating with kids. It’s a soft cut-out sugar cookie recipe that keeps its shape and dough does not need to be chilled before baking. It makes perfect edges every time!

The texture is medium-soft but you can bake them longer if you prefer a crisp cookie. We’re going to make thick cookies so they can hold a lot of icing decorations. We’ve used Dr. Oetker decorations as they are easy to use and the colours compliment our designs.

Our cookie dough has a texture close to Play-Doh which I love and being a toddler I’m quite happy to mould, knead and manipulate. We use the scraps and aren’t scared of adding more flour or wetting our hands if it gets too dry!

My mummy suggests taking the cookies out of the oven at the 6-8 minute mark. They will continue baking on the cookie sheet for a few minutes while they cool and set. After cooling for about 5 minutes we use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack.

Makes: 24 sugar cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes (or longer if you are baking with a child!)

Cook Time: 6-8 minutes

Total Time: 38 minutes

Ingredients:

100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

100g/3½oz caster sugar

1 medium free-range egg, lightly beaten

275g/10oz plain flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 teaspoons baking powder

Decorate:

400g/14oz icing sugar

3-4 tbsp water

2-3 drops Dr. Oetker Gel Food Colours

Dr. Oetker Bright Writing Icing

Dr. Oetker Fairy Princess Sprinkles

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5

In a bowl cream the butter and sugar until smooth, at least 3 minutes.

Beat in vanilla extract and egg.

In a separate bowl combine baking powder with plain flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients. The dough will be very stiff. If it becomes too stiff for your mixer turn out the dough onto a countertop surface. Wet your hands and finish off kneading the dough by hand. We enjoy playing with the dough on the work surface to make it extra soft.

You don’t need to chill the dough. So just divide and roll out onto a floured surface and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side. We used little cutters perfect for little hands!

Bake at 190C/375F/Gas 5 for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on a baking sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

Bake for 6 minutes to test. They should be soft. Leave them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to cool completely. If you reach 7-8 minutes and the edges turn brown your cookie will be crisper.

Tah Dah!

For the icing, sift the icing sugar into mixing bowls and stir in enough water to create a smooth thick mixture. Stir in the food colouring. We enjoyed making icing sugar to flood the designs and used Dr. Oetker Gel Food Colours and Bright Writing Icing and Fairy Princess Sprinkles.

We made a mixture of Under the Sea Cookies and Sugar Star Cookies.
I’m taking part in the half term Bake Brighter Days community challenge. As you can see from my recipe, you can get as creative as you like. We’ve also made Valentine’s Day Hearts with these sugar cookies too!

I’ve just posted this recipe on my We Bake profile so you can make it at home! Check it out here: Dear Mummy Blog. Why not become a We Bake member? It’s free and easy to navigate around. It’s perfect for all levels of bakers…including the likes of me!

Love Bella x