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Mechan van der Westhuizen is The Flour Queen – she runs her baking business from her Arkles Bay home. Each year she makes decorated Christmas cookies with daughters Diane and Kaylen and puts them on the tree as ornaments – one for every member of the family. “I used to bake Christmas cookies with my mum,” Mechan says. “So, I passed on that tradition to my girls. The smell of freshly baked cookies it what make the season special to us.”
Decorated Christmas cookies Makes 24 Cookies
Ingredients
Sugar cookies
3 cups standard flour
1 cup castor sugar
1 cup butter, room temp
1 egg, room temp
1tsp vanilla or almond essence
1tsp salt
Method: Sift all dry ingredients together. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Knead until a soft dough forms. Roll out the dough in between baking paper to about 6mm thick, set in the fridge to chill for about 15-20mins. Once chilled, preheat oven to 150°C. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge. Using cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Carefully place the dough shapes on a lined baking tray. Bake until slightly brown in colour – about 10mins at 150°C. While the cookies are cooling. Prepare your royal icing.
Royal Icing
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 egg white
5ml vanilla essence
10ml/15ml lukewarm water
2.5ml cream of tartar
Gel food colouring
Method:Sift the icing sugar and cream of tartar together. Add the egg white, water, and vanilla essence. Beat on high speed with an electric mixer for about 2min. When lifting the whisk up, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5-10 seconds. If it’s too thick, add a few more drops of water. Colour as desired with gel food color. A little bit goes a long way. Scoop the icing into a piping bag. When ready to decorate, cut a small hole across the tip of the bag. The bigger the hole, the faster the icing will flow. Once iced, add sprinkles or other edible decorations. Leave the cookies overnight. You can then enjoy them as they are, or add them to little self-sealed bags, tie a ribbon around and hang them on the Christmas tree. As long as they are sealed in a airtight container, they will last for up to 3 months.
