Painted Bird Cookies
An original recipe by Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella
Preparation time: 10 minutes plus an hour or so painting time
Cooking time: 20 minutes
- 85g/3ozs butter, softened
- 140g/5ozs/3/4 cup white caster superfine sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 180g/6ozs/1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour plus extra for rolling
- 500g/1lb. white fondant (you won't use all of this)
- 1/2 cup cornflour/cornstarch
- Edible colour gels in green, blue, red, black and yellow
- Edible gold dust mixed with vodka or rose spirit
- Painters palette
- 4 Clean #8 paintbrushes, 1 #1 brush and a non stick rolling pin
- You will also need a bird/swallow cutter
Step 1 - Line two trays with parchment. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Step 2 - Preheat oven to 200 degrees C/400 degrees F. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut out into bird shapes and gently place on parchment lined trays. Bake for 15 minutes or until light golden. Cool completely on tray.
Step 3 - Dust a clean surface lightly with the cornflour/cornstarch. Roll out the fondant (I used a light pink one but that's only because I had run out of white). Cut out the bird shape with the cutter and using a little water, attach the fondant to the cookie.
Step 4 - Add some water to the cavities of the palette and start off lightly with very diluted mixes of blues and greens before adding more colour to make a more solid colour using the #8 paintbrushes. The key to painting is layering (see this blog post for more detail). Draw feathers in green and blue. I had my iPad propped up in front of me and used tattoo illustrations as a guide. Colour the beak in with yellow and also use red highlights on the feathers.
Step 5 - Using the smallest brush the #1 draw and outline in black. Finish by highlighting the patterns with a little liquid gold.