Haute Couture Dress Cookies

Happy Monday Dear Readers! Just one last plea, if you don't mind, if you could please vote for me for the People's Choice awards at the Sydney Writer's Centre. The voting closes on Wednesday the 9th of May at 9pm AEST. You can also vote if you are outside of Australia too! :) Now, back to the post! x

I read once that some people love being brides and grooms because it is the closest thing to being an A list movie star than most of us mortals will get. There's the lavish amount of attention, a scene stealing dress and of course the photographers tracking your every move. Although at a wedding, the photographers aren't paparazzi and they aren't trying to catch you out drunk falling out of a car...

It's at these moments that Bridezillas emerge and bound to ideals of what a wedding should be like, things start to get a little scary. But really, how often do we mere mortals get to have these sorts of days? You can't really blame people for living it up if it is just for one day. I can't imagine most people's lives being replete with opportunities to wear ballgowns. After the wedding, there's the dinner out or a meal at a friend's house but you can't really wear ball gowns or red carpet dresses when you're going over to someone's house (although admittedly, I tend to overdress than under-dress). Other guests tend to become annoyed at that sort of behaviour. There’s nothing worse than when ballgowns appear when you least expect it.

The best I can content myself with in lieu of a wardrobe full of $15,000 gowns is looking at the red carpet gown pictures, which I must say seems to be a pretty good substitution of being able to wear them without having to endure the pre ceremony dieting calisthenics. I had even heard that one Victoria's Secret model didn't drink water for two days prior to a runway show. That has got to the definition of self imposed torture by will.

I made these cookies for my mother as she always sewed our dresses when we were little. She adores buttery cookies and I wanted to delve into my big box of cookie cutters and make use of more of them. The dress cutter could be slightly amended for all types of dresses and it was then that I decided to make them based on red carpet gowns. And aren't these three tier stands gorgeous? They're cake stands made by Valentina's Vintage Cake Stands in Sydney and they're all made using vintage plates!

For those of you fellow red carpet gown spotters, I'm hoping that you might recognise some of these gowns. The yellow gown was inspired by Renee Zellweger's yellow Oscars gown, the red one worn by Julianna Marguiles and the purple one worn by Sofia Vergara.

Picture source: http://blastoffash.blogspot.com.au

And this last one? Perhaps the leg might give it away! ;)

So tell me Dear Reader, do you prefer to over-dress or under dress when you go out? And which dress and celebrity has the best red carpet style in your opinion?

Haute Couture Dress Cookies

An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella

• 85 g/3ozs butter, softened

• 140g/5ozs white caster superfine sugar

• 1 egg, at room temperature

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 180g/6ozs  all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For Royal Icing and decoration

• 1 egg white (30grams/1 oz)

• 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice

• 150grams sifted icing sugar

• Food colouring gels or liquids in various colours

• Tiny edible pearls (available at supermarket)

• 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.