Construction Tool Cookies

I wanted to make Construction Tool Cookies as party favours for Ollie's birthday party rather than just giving the kids a bag of lollies.  So I searched the internet for a good sugar cookie recipe and this was the best that I found. It is from Lilaloa http://www.lilaloa.com/2012/04/vanilla-variation.html.  This recipe stores really well and can be used to make any shaped cookie.  Here is how I made the construction tool cookies.

Vanilla Sugar Cookies
250g cold unsalted butter cubed
1 1/2 cups (300g) sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 1/2 cups (400g) flour

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, vanilla, and orange extract. Mix well. Add baking powder and salt and mix again. Add flour 1 cup at a time. No need to chill the dough. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1cm thick. Dust cookie cutters in flour before cutting each cookie and place on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper.

Bake at 190C for 8-10 minutes. Let rest on tray for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

Hammers

Screwdrivers

Saws

As this was my first time decorating with Royal Icing I needed to get some handy tips.  I found these on the following link http://bakeat350.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/pony-party.html.  It provides a fantastic tutorial on outlining and flooding with royal icing.

To make the colours I combined the following:

Orange = red and yellow food colouring. Add a few drops of each colour initially into the icing and combine. Add more or less of each until you have the desired colour.

Grey = black food colouring. Add a few drops at a time. You don't want the colour to get too dark.

I served the cookies at the party as well as bagging them for the little workers to take home as party favours.

I got the cake topper template from http://www.stylemegorgeous.com.au/store/pc/home.asp and printed them on my Canon Pixmar on card stock. Then all I had to do was cut them up and staple them to the bags. Voila!

If you are making a large quantity of cookies you can freeze them plain or iced with royal icing. You just need to make sure they are in an airtight container or freezer bag. I would recommend placing 2-3 cookies in a zip lock bag (so they are not touching) and then stack the bags in an airtight container in the freezer. Defrost at room temperature (not in the fridge) in the container they were frozen in. You don't want to damage the icing through condensation. Bake at 350 has a great post on freezing cookies with royal icing http://bakeat350.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/yes-you-can-freeze-decorated.html