Biscuit decorating with friends

A few weeks ago, just before Halloween, I was invited to a craft evening with the theme of biscuit decorating.  My lovely friend Kirsten had previously read my post about Princess Biscuits (see here) and, being a maker of fantastic cookies herself, suggested I have a look at the blog of the amazing Sugarbelle.  It was from this blog that our craft evening was inspired.  With some ghost shaped and circular biscuits fresh from the oven, I popped over to Kirsten's ready for a night of outlining, flooding and, of course, biscuit sampling.

Using Sugarbelle's recipe, Kirsten had made up some icing - in a huge quantity! - ready for us to water down a little into the consistency desired.  This is where I picked up my first tip of the evening which was to use a water spray bottle for adding water.  This allows a bit more control and you are less likely to add too much.  I, of course, did add too much, so ended up with flood icing when I'd wanted icing for outlining but nevermind there was plenty more at hand.

Once the consistency was at the 20 second icing stage (again see Sugarbelle) I was ready to start.  Firstly, I filled my icing bag.  Now,  I have done this hundreds of times before, so you'd think I'd be pretty good at it but I'm not and, thankfully, even here I picked up some great tips:  1.   To keep your bag upright use a beaker to rest the bag in.  At the bottom, put some damp kitchen roll to keep the piping nozzle clean.  2.  To get the air out of the bag (which I always manage to trap inside) hit the cup and the bag quite forcefully on the table.  3.  Use a hair band to secure the top of your icing bag.  This keeps everything tight and makes it easier to manage the bag.  These were all great tips but so simple!  They instantly improved my approach to icing and I wish I had known them before!

 

My icing bag almost ready to go. 

 

The next task was the outlining which was fairly easy and quick to do.  I think probably, in future, I would take a little more time and perhaps use a slightly smaller nozzle, just to keep the outlines neater and so that they are less noticeable on the finished item.  I enjoyed this part though and was quite excited to get started. 

 

 

 

After waiting for a few minutes for the icing to set a little I added the flood icing.  This part was really satisfying as the design of the biscuits started to come to life.  That said, I wish I'd actually thought about my designs a bit more and drawn them out on paper first so that I had a finished look to aim for.  However, it was all a learning experience and you can't always think of everything beforehand. 

 

The next stage was to add other colours or decorations to finish the biscuits off.  I added some small round cupcake decorations as the eyes of my ghosts and used black icing to add pupils and a ghostly mouth.  For my eyeballs, I used blue icing for the iris and black for the pupils then added some red food colouring with a cocktail stick to get the bloodshot effect.

 

I was quite pleased with the ghosts but not so happy with my eyeballs - this is probably because I always think I'm going to be brilliant at something the first time I do it but actually, to be good at something you need practice!  Here are some of Kirsten's fantastic creations:





 

I love the different textures on the pumpkins, which Kirsten achieved by flooding one part and leaving it to set a little before flooding the next part.  Overall, I picked up loads of tips, enjoyed trying out some new ideas (and trying the icing) and getting together with the girls.  The next day the biscuits were yummy but had gone a bit soggy, so I obviously didn't store them correctly - something for me to work how to correct for the future.  Talking of which, more biscuits icing tonight....now what shall I make???