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
Mmmm yum. These looks absolutely great and delicious. Adore the designs, such a good job x
Wow these have come out so well, I love the icing. They’ve made me crave something sweet now x
These look really good, I love baking and now have a niggle in my head I need to go and bake some cookies x
These look great and so easy to make, perfect for a half term activity too!
Emmie
I think that most amazing thing about these is the amount of creativity that went into them. My daughter, when is a bit older, is definitely getting some of these made for her!
They look so cool 🙂 certainly something that me and my little girl might do together xx
aww these are so adorable need to bake more pretty biscuits for us x
They look so cute and I love all the colours. I know that my niece would love to make these.
Bella, your biscuits came out so wonderfully! They look so delicious that I really want to have some myself. The We Bake site sounds like a very fun site to get ideas and learn new skills and the chance to win prizes makes it all the more enjoyable x
Yummy, those cookies look playful and deliciously tasty! 🙂
These look like very nice cookies! The theme is brilliant. It has been ages since I last baked
Oh these look super yummy and so sweet! H x
My kids love baking! I love the theme and the bright colours, we home educate and will have to make these when we do our sea life project month 🙂
These look really good. We haven’t made cookies for a while but I know my girls and little man would enjoy making the under the sea cookies.
Such great looking cookies. I only like home made cookies / biscuits! Esecially when they are still a little warm x
I am so very very impressed! These look great and I absolutely adore the video. All of them are also my favourite 😉 #littlemakes
Awww thanks! We’re going to pop over tomorrow and have a read of the rest of the #littlemakes – sorry I couldn’t add you badge, I’ll try again tomorrow x
these cookies are fab! I love the starfish and seahorse shaped ones
These look amazing! I love the designs on them as well x
These look so pro! You could get a job with the Biscuiteers! xxx
Thanks! We love Biscuiteers too x
I think they look sea-purb ( you see what I did there haha) and coming from someone who is part mermaid that is high praise indeed xx
These look absolutely brilliant, really well done you. I love the Starfishes x
Oh wow these look brilliant (and delicious!). My girls are mermaid and fish obsessed and would love to make something like this. #LittleMakes
Can’t beat anything ‘under the sea’ Such fun to be had when kids get involved with baking!
I love sugar cookies! These look so tasty and I love the bright colours!
These cookies look amazing, I love the decorating too!
These look fabulours – great piping on the designs too! #littlemakes
I have to say they look brilliant, almost too good to eat they are so pretty.
Wow! These look amazing, and bet they tasted good too 🙂 #littlemakes
Wow these are so pretty- clever you! Thanks for letting us know about the we bake, will check it out! #littlemakes