This term one of my children is learning about natural disasters at school with and we had an  assignment of "cooking" a natural disaster.  I was really impressed at some of the cakes which arrived at school that day. 

For this assignment we opted for decorated cookies depicting natural disasters starting at the Volcano.

To create these cookies I used a Christmas Bell Cookie cutter for the base shape.  We than made two shades of brown icing and used red and orange glitter decorating gel for the eruption  To add a final touch we added small trees from our Christmas decorating collection.

Enjoy

Recipe: Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

• 250g butter, at room temprature
• 1 1/4 cups caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  I use an electric mixer for these cookies with a paddle attachment.
2. Add the egg and continue beating.
3. Add the Vanilla, salt and about 1/2 a cup of flour at a time and mix until a ball of dough has formed.
4. Pat the dough into a disc shape, cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for approx 1 hour.
5. Preheat over to 180c and line two baking trays with baking paper
6. On a floured surface, roll about a 1/4 of the dough at a time into a circle about 5 ml thick.
7. Use cookie cutters to cut into the desired shape.
8. Place on the baking paper and bake for 10 - 15 minutes until the edges are slightly brown.
9. Transfer to a wire rack to completely cool before icing.

Recipe: Royal icing

Ingredients

• 500g pure icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/3 cup water
• food colouring

Method

1. Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl with a half of the water.
2. Continue to add water until the icing is well combined but not too runny.
3. Divide the icing into smaller bowls and add food colour a drop at a time until you reach your desired colour
4. Ice and decorate your cookies
5. Enjoy