halloween iced biscuits | a recipe

It's no secret that I am terrible at baking. My Mum shudders in fear when I tell her I'm about to bake, and that fear doubles when that baking involves decorating. I don't know what comes over me when I'm faced with a tub full of food colouring and sprinkles, but I get very carried away. I've never been able to go with tasteful, everything I make has to be covered in E numbers and glitter. I think it may have something to do with needing bright colours and inches of icing to cover up whatever disaster the actual food product is...

Last week I spent a bit too long on Amazon as a result of trying to find some non-natural food colouring (funnily enough, because I'd made some bad macarons which weren't holding their colour in the heat) and came across a box of Americolor. And they happened to be delivered with my order of the Biscuiteers book. Combine this with the fact it's Halloween today and I went on a trip to a small town which had a disproportionately large kitchenware shop and could pick up some cheap Halloween biscuit cutters and before you know it, you have a recipe for an Annie-baking-disaster. 

I had to do pumpkin biscuits, it was practically a done deal. I'm so impressed with the food colouring, I've not had such bright colours with anything from the supermarket, and even though they weren't cheap, you only need the smallest amount for the brightest colours so they'll last an incredibly long time. I also had to have a go with making some bats, although I think I won't be picking out white bits from the hundreds and thousands packet again any time soon. Faff. 

I'm pretty impressed with the Biscuiteers book. It explains things really well, and when you're as crap and as determined to get better at icing biscuits as I am, that's quite a good thing. I need a few more attempts at getting my flood and line consistencies to be a little better, but that's my impatience rather than anything else. If you're looking for a book for icing biscuits inspiration, then this book is perfect. Also, it has gorgeous pictures and it exceptionally well put together. The only downside is the idea that I would have all the various cutters which are required lying around at home ready to use. There are templates at the back of the book, but not the same amount as the designs which are used in the book, and so you can find yourself getting a bit carried away on deciding what to make before realising it may require another Amazon order or a bit of tracing and cutting. Neither are great options. 

So here's to more baking and decorating disasters, I have a feeling this blog will be seeing a few more of them. Oh, and shout out to my friend's cakes - gluten free and passion fruit flavoured icing. What's not to love?As always, give me a shout if you have any improvement techniques, lord knows I need them, and I'll happily take them.