Haute Couture Dress Cookies
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
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85 g/3ozs butter, softened
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140g/5ozs white caster superfine sugar
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1 egg, at room temperature
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1 teaspoon vanilla
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180g/6ozs all-purpose flour
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1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For Royal Icing and decoration
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1 egg white (30grams/1 oz)
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1-2 teaspoons lemon juice
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150grams sifted icing sugar
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Food colouring gels or liquids in various colours
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Tiny edible pearls (available at supermarket)
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Ready to roll fondant
DIRECTIONS
Step 1 - Make cookies. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour and cinnamon. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Step 2 - Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with the dress shaped cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.
Step 3 - Make Royal Icing by beating egg white with lemon juice until foamy on low speed increasing to medium speed. You want two textures for the Royal Icing, a stiff one to pipe the outline and a runnier one to fill in the outline. Add sifted sugar by the spoonful while beating until desired consistency is reached. You want it a little stiff in order to pipe the outline however, if it is too stiff, add a tiny little bit of warm water. Divide into bowls as you will now mix colours into these (leaving a bowl white for white dresses). Always cover your Royal Icing with cling wrap as it dries out easily. Some strong colours need some time to settle or they will be a bit blotchy so make your royal icing ahead of time if you can.
4. Spoon some of the royal icing into a piping bag or a strong ziplock bag and pipe a fine outline around the dress cookies. I always keep these icing "pens" in an airtight container as you will use them later to draw patterns on. Allow the icing borders to set (about 20-30 minutes depending on weather and humidity, if it is dry, it will set faster). Add a little water (not too much) to each of the remaining bowls of icing and using a small spoon, fill in the edges making sure to prick any air bubbles and fill in any holes. While the icing is still wet, sprinkle tiny edible pearls.
To make the pink frill couture dress
Step 5 - Make the fondant dresses. To do the frills for the pink dress, I used the end of a chopstick although you could also buy a frilling tool (I keep forgetting every time I'm at the cake supply store!). Cut out strips of baby pink fondant and using the end of the chopstick, gently rock back and forth to produce a frill. Gently add this to the dress adhering it with a little water and starting from the hem. Repeat this process. You also want a bodice so use the dress cookie cutter to cut out a bodice, adhere it to the dress with a little water and then top with a final "frill" of pink on the top.
To make the feather dress
Step 6 - Use royal icing to create a bodice and sprinkle tiny silver pearls on top. Using the smallest leaf cutter cut out a lot of white "leaves". Take the end of the paintbrush and do the same frilling effect as above. Adhere these to the dress with a little water starting from the hem and working your way up.