Of all the recipes I\’ve baked and cooked before, I’d never thought the first recipe I’d post would be this. But it just so happened that Royal Icing Cookies was Atisha’s first request after I made her a promise that I would bake for her again when I finished my manuscript. The poor little darling had to wait 9 months until I finally had nowhere to run, no more excuses, and just succumbed to the agony of baking these monsters, I mean, cookies.

This is my third royal icing cookies experience. The first one, I did it in a baking course where my instructor had neatly prepared all the colorful icings in piping bags. She did all the measuring, mixing, baking, etc, and we just did the fun parts: choosing shapes, decorating, and eating. Basically, everything that Atisha was about to do. No wonder she was so excited. During that course I took, I even thought of how meditative the process was. Playing with shapes, colors, patterns like we were in some art class.

My second experience was quite traumatizing. Saya melakukan semua proses masak dan menghias dalam satu hari, memakai resep dengan volume dua kali lipat dari yang saya cantumkan di bawah ini, dan Atisha minta tujuh warna pelangi, yang artinya 14 kantung icing. Tujuh untuk outline dan tujuh lagi untuk mengisi. It was SO time consuming. I remember how dreadfully tired I was at the end of that day.

So, this time, I negotiated with her. Saya bersedia bikin asal prosesnya dibagi dua hari. Hari pertama, bikin kukisnya saja. Hari kedua, bikin icing dan menghias. Thank heavens, she agreed.

First day was the easy part. I love butter cookies and really enjoy baking them. Di resep ini saya pakai full mentega dan tidak dicampur margarin sama sekali. Adonan memang jadi lebih halus dan tidak sekokoh margarin pada saat pengolahan karena mentega lebih gampang lunak di suhu ruangan. Tapi, soal rasa dan aroma memang nggak bohong. I mean, the title says it all, it’s BUTTER cookies, so by all means, don’t pull your punches and use the real thing!

Kocok mentega dan gula sampai lembut dan memutih, masukkan ekstrak vanilla, kemudian kuning telur satu per satu. Kocok sampai rata.

Satukan tepung terigu, maizena, susu bubuk, ayak ke dalam adonan secara bertahap. Aduk dengan spatula.

Masukkan adonan ke dalam kulkas kurang lebih 30 menit supaya lebih mudah dibentuk. Giling adonan dengan bantuan penggaris kukis agar ketebalannya rata.

Learning from my previous grueling experience, I told Atisha that we would only use 4 colours and one shape as a theme. We chose heart shaped cookie cutters in several various sizes.

Panggang di oven dengan suhu 150 derajat Celcius selama 30 menit. The smell was so soothing that it almost healed my trauma. Almost.

The next day, the saga continues.

Today is what Atisha has been longing for. Decorating. Before we began, she shouted dramatically: “This is the best day of my liiife!”

Hmm.

Well, making the icing is actually easier than the cookies. We just need to prepare icing sugar (lots of it!), egg whites (pasangan dari kuning telur yang dipakai kemarin untuk kue keringnya, saya simpan di kulkas), and some lemon water (or white vinegar).

And mix them all together!

Thus, the coloring began. Siapkan mangkuk-mangkuk terpisah, sendok, plastik segitiga, dan pewarna makanan. Sesuai perjanjian, kami hanya memakai 4 warna kali ini: pink, biru muda, ungu, dan kuning. Pink akan dipasangkan dengan biru muda. Ungu akan dipasangkan dengan kuning. Everytime I mixed a color, Atisha got hysterical as if she just saw each color for the first time. So adorable.

The sky is your limit when it comes to decorating royal icing cookies. But if you want to fill all the surface, usually we have to make outline first.

Adonan untuk garis outline konsistensinya lebih kental ketimbang adonan untuk mengisi nanti. Untuk isian, encerkan lagi icing memakai air lemon/cuka hingga mencapai konsistensi yang dibutuhkan. Untuk memudahkan outline, saya pakai spuit Wilton nomor 3.

From this point on, things just got messier.

And messier.

I couldn’t event take any picture of the chaos at our dining table because my hands were too sticky. But, finally, we pull it off. We put back our decorated cookies to the oven for them to dry perfectly. Atisha was so eager to see the result, she just waited in front of the oven.

Our wait was finally over, and I got my life back. Plus, Valentine came early in our kitchen.

But, love can also be abstract and… formless.

Keenan, who later decided to join the decorating process, claimed those as a work of art. I didn’t oppose, really, as long as he was responsible enough to eat his own “artwork”.

Esoknya, Atisha memasukkan dua kukis ke dalam plastik mika untuk menjadi hadiah untuk dua guru kelasnya. As tiring and time consuming the whole process was, royal icing cookie can be such a charming and pretty looking gift, don’t you agree?

I think I’m healed. I am so ready to make these cookies again… next year.

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Royal Icing Cookies (Kue Kering Hias)

Bahan:

• 150 gr mentega
• 50 gr gula tepung (icing sugar)
• 2 butir kuning telur
• 280 gr tepung terigu protein rendah
• 10 gr tepung maizena
• 15 gr susu bubuk
• ½ sdt ekstrak vanilla

Cara membuat:

1. Kocok mentega dan gula bubuk hingga lembut dan memutih.
2. Masukkan vanilla dan kuning telur satu persatu, kocok sebentar sampai tercampur rata.
3. Ayak terigu, maizena, susu bubuk, ke dalam adonan secara bertahap. Aduk dengan spatula.
4. Dinginkan adonan di kulkas selama 15-30 menit.
5. Dengan bantuan penggaris kukis, giling adonan. Cetak sesuai selera. Pindahkan ke loyang.
6. Panggang dengan suhu 150’C selama kurang lebih 30 menit atau sampai keemasan.
7. Keluarkan, biarkan dingin dalam loyang.
8. Hias kukis dengan royal icing. Biarkan kering dengan sendirinya atau panggang sebentar dengan suhu 100’C selama 15 menit.

Royal Icing

Bahan:

• 2 butir putih telur
• 250 gr gula tepung (icing sugar)
• ½ butir lemon, peras, ambil airnya (bisa diganti cuka)

Cara membuat :

1. Kocok putih telur dengan mixer sampai mulai berbusa, masukkan gula tepung secara bertahap, tambahkan 1 sdt cuka/air jeruk lemon, kocok terus sampai mengental.
2. Bagi icing ke dalam mangkuk-mangkuk terpisah dan beri warna sesuai selera. Aduk rata.
3. Masukan setiap warna ke dalam plastik segitiga (piping bag). Gunting ujung kantong.
4. Bila icing dirasa kurang cair, tambahkan air lemon/cukahingga mencapai konsitensi yg diinginkan.

Untuk +/- 400 gram kukis.