The best tasting soil you'll ever eat!

 I was going to call this post Mrs McGregor's Garden but when I shared these cookies at school yesterday the overwhelming comment was... "that's the best tasting soil I've ever eaten!"  Which kind of makes me wonder if my work mates have unusual eating habits LOL

As we all know... Mr McGregor... from Peter Rabbit... is the enemy of Peter Rabbit and his friends, he hates that the three always break into his garden and steal/eat his fruits and vegetables from his farm garden. 

There are a few mentions of Mrs McGregor... mostly the mention of her putting Peter's father... Mr Rabbit... in a pie and eating him.  I prefer to think of her as a lovely woman who decided to collaborate with the rabbits... planting carrots and lettuces for them and they, in turn, not eating her flowers.  

You might be wondering where this is all heading... so best I explain.  You might recall that last month I entered a cookie challenge with Kuki Reka Kani. I'm absolutely thrilled to tell you that I won two awards for my cookies: Technical excellence and Star Baker of the Month :)

When they announced the March prompt I was definitely keen to give it another go!

As you might have guessed 'Veggie Patch' was what caught my eye! I tend to be a bit of a ponderer... I like to think about ideas, put things together in my own mind... and then work out what I'm going to do.  Most of the time I've already 'finished' my design before I actually start to bake... and this one kind of went that way.  

I started off by reading through the creative ideas provided with the challenge... and that helped a LOT

 So without any more procrastinating... here's what I came up with:

 

I ended up doing eight cookies that are the 'same but different' and I'll share them at the end of the post.  So if you don't want to see the 'how to' then feel free to skip ahead.

 

My first decision was what flavour of cookie to make... and after a bit of Googling I found a recipe for Pumpkin Spice cookies.  There's no actual pumpkin in the recipe but it incorporates the spices used to make pumpkin pie.

 

I also had to decide which cutter to use and I chose Pikorua (double twist)... mostly because when I lay it on it's side it felt the most 'garden like'. 

 

I have found that the secret to using these cutters is LOTS of flour sprinkled on the dough before cutting... it helps the cutter release from the dough... and then I just gently brush off the excess flour before baking.

 

Once I had all the cookies on the tray I popped them in the fridge for about 20 minutes... definitely helps them to not spread out while baking.

Ready for the oven

 

While the cookies were baking the kitchen smelt like a combination of ANZAC cookies, hot cross buns... and warm apple crumble.  It was a wonderful combo and I'll definitely use the recipe again. 

Then it was time to move on to all the decorations.  I had a wonderful fondant mould to make all the little garden supplies... gumboots.. watering can... pots... fork and trowel.  I also had a different mould that made little carrots... so happy with how they all turned out.  The little flowers were some I bought at the supermarket... super cute and perfectly sized for what I needed.

 

 

Then I needed some 'soil'.  YouTube came to my rescue and I found a couple of tutorials and then just adapted what suited me.  I ended up using Oreo cookies with chocolate filling and some Arnott's Gaiety biscuits.  I've never had those before but they are DELICIOUS!  The recipes I looked at also combined chocolate chips but in the end I didn't use them for the soil.

Basically I put some of each cookie into a plastic bag and bashed the heck out of them with my rolling pin... ever so carefully of course!  The resulting soil looked more like 'rubble' so I quickly pulsed them in my handy dandy mini processor and got EXACTLY what I was hoping for!

Left is 'rubble'... right is 'soil'

While I'd been YouTube(ing) I'd come across some tutorials for making 'moss'.  I didn't need moss but I thought it looked a bit like fancy lettuce... which of course the bunnies would LOVE.

 

I whisked up my mixture and added some bright green colour.  I actually had to do my mixture twice because the first time I added Colour Mill oil colours without even thinking and all my lovely thick airy batter turned into very thin soupy mess.  I MUST remember that oil and fluffy egg whites do NOT go together! 

 

I put 1/3 in a cup... added a different green and did 1/3 in another cup... and then a bit more colour and put the rest in another cup.  Cooked it in the microwave and then turned them upside down to 'set'.  The science behind the upside down part is that the sugar sets creating lovely big air pockets and if you left it up the right way you would get flat little pancakes. 

 The lightest colour turned out to be EXACTLY what I was looking for!

 

The final part was to use the cast aside chocolate chips... I say that like I would EVER cast aside chocolate LOL  I made some chocolate ganache for everything to stick to... plus it was the right colour and texture for what I wanted. 

I got everything assembled and ready to create!

 

Then I just let myself go... I really didn't think about it too much.  I did make sure that I spread out all my fondant decorations so there wasn't one cookie with too much and others with nothing... but apart from that I just created for fun.

 

Here's my finished cookies:

Big pot and lettuce

Trowel and Fork

Gumboots

Watering can

Carrots and lettuce

More carrots and lettuce

Small pot and flower

Lettuce and flowers

The completed cookies went to school on Monday... and none of them made it past 9am!

So what did I learn during this challenge?

• Making 'moss' is super fun... pink and purple moss would make wonderful coral for an underwater theme!
• Cookie soil looks great as rubble and as soil... and it would be perfect for adding to the top of Easter cookies and cupcakes
• Pumpkin spice cookies are really delicious!
• Giving myself time to create and just 'play' is really fun

So there you have it... another month in 2025 almost over and another challenge completed. 

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the universe :)
Shelley

Baking cookies... one Māori cookie at a time!

Today's post is something a little different... and an absolute first for me.  Last month Kuki Reka Kani advertised a cookie challenge. The basic idea was to use their cookie cutters... which are amazing... and use their monthly prompts to take part in a year long cookie challenge.

Join our year-long journey of artistic expression, whether you're baking cookies with our cutters or crafting with clay. Each month brings new prompts based on a theme, inspiration, and chances to share your creative spirit.

We're building a community where every creation tells a story. From kitchen to craft room, let's make something beautiful together.

Since I already own several of their cookie cutters... and I like to try new things... I thought I'd give it a go.

I waited in eager anticipation for the first prompt to appear and it did not disappoint at all!

 

I knew almost straight away what I thought I'd like to do and which cutter I wanted to use... what I hadn't planned on was having even more ideas and coming up with two different designs!

So without further ado... here's my entries into the February challenge:

 

Close up

If you want to see how I came up with my designs stick around!

 

My original idea was something like what the palm tree cookie turned out... except that I'd envisioned having shells on it. 

I started off the project making fondant shells in a mould... love how they turned out! Basically I coloured some white fondant with Colour Mill Latte... and some more fondant with Colour Mill Pebble.  Then I marbled the two together and pushed them into the silicone mould. I popped them out and let them dry while I got on with the rest of the project. 

 

Then of course I needed to actually bake some cookies.  I used my favourite sugar cookie recipe and the Koru cutter to make my cookies.  I thought the koru had a similar shape to a wave so that was my inspiration.

Gorgeous design

 

I'm not that great at rolling out cookie dough to an even depth so these cookie guides are an absolute life saver!
 

Ready for baking

I decided my design needed an extra element so I made palm tree cookies as well... yay for being able to make my own cutters!... after all... what's better than one cookie??  Two of course :)

Buttercream frosting ready to colour

Once all the cookies were done I made myself a batch of my favourite buttercream frosting... it's so creamy and delicious... plus it's super easy to work with.

I coloured my frosting with Colour Mill colours... Chocolate and Coffee for the palm tree trunks.

 I did a mix of piping and spatula work to get the look I was after:

Then I coloured some more frosting with a mixture of Lime, Green and Forest to get the colour I wanted for the palm tree fronds:

It was all going pretty much according to plan by this stage:

Then I decided that my palm tree needed a little 'lift' so I added some air brushing to give the cookie some depth and highlights... loving it!

Air brushed cookies on the left

Now for some waves... I coloured some more frosting.  This time I chose four Colour Mill colours... Tiffany, Teal, Sky Blue and Cobalt.

One of the great things about YouTube is learning new things... including how to tie icing bags a different way... LOVE this technique and will definitely be doing it again! I added another bag of plain white frosting for the 'sea foam' of the waves.

 So here's how I created my waves... I started off with piping and then used a brush (that I only use for food) to 'paint' the waves.

Cobalt

 

Sky Blue

Teal

Tiffany

And then finally some white for the sea foam:

 By this stage I had worked out that there was going to be no room on the cookie for my 'shells' and my brain kicked into gear for another cookie.  Meanwhile I added my palm tree and felt quite pleased with the results.

 

Entry #1

 

I had plenty of left over 'wave' frosting so I decided I'd try something a little different for the next cookie.

I took some of the white frosting and tinted it very slightly with Colour Mill Clay: 

I used the same piping and brushing technique to create some 'sand' on my cookie... and then I added a bit of air brushing... if you've got a new piece of equipment you just want to use it over and over LOL

 I thought I needed a bit more texture on my sand so I added some demerara sugar and love how that turned out!

 Then it was time to add the 'water' using all the blues and teals from the first cookie... and some more piping and brushing:

Piped

 

Brushed

Of course it needed some sea foam as well:

 I had another look at my fondant shells and decided they could do with a little air brushing to make them more interesting:

It was while I was doing the air brushing that I realised the pattern from the cookie cutter resembled a sunset... the brain got ticking away and before I knew it I'd reached for my air brush again... it's addictive I tell you! I did a blend of yellow... followed by orange... and then finished off with some red.  I did the airbrushing straight onto the cookie so that I had the cookie pattern incorporated into the design.

 

Finally it was time to add my sea shells:

Entry #2

 An extra photo... just because I can :)

 So those are my entries for the February Challenge :)

 

I really loved this challenge... So what have I learned?

• Run with the ideas and pivot if I need to
• Don't be afraid to embrace a change in direction
• Just enjoy the process
  

Thanks for stopping by... and if you've got a minute to leave me a comment I'd love to hear from you :)

Until next time
Shelley