Langues Du Chat Cookies for Valentines Day and a Free Printable Cookie Box

Yes fine readers, it is that time of year again. The shops are filled with overpriced boxes of choccies and cards featuring disgustingly cute little teddy bears thrusting love hearts into our faces. No I am not bitter, I am not single, I just think all these things are complete rubbish and that Valentines Day is a truly materialistic 'holiday'.

You should show your partner how much you love them every single day, and not by buying them stuffed animals and other equally shoddy goods, but with your words and actions and most importantly, home baked treats.

Now as you may know I cannot resist a chance to theme something in any way I can, and if it involves glitter and sprinkles all the better, so Valentines Day is one such reason I have grabbed hold of and gone with.

I decided to make these cookies after one of my in bed recipe book browsing sessions - everyone does that right? I was looking through this book, one of the prettiest I own. It has a felted textured cover and gilt edges and comes wrapped in lavender tissue paper in a beautiful pale pistachio green box. I don't even care that it is entirely in French, the photographs are so beautiful you don't need words. Of course it is a recipe book, so you kind of do need words, but I remember enough from school to get by.

Langues du chat or 'cat's tongue' cookies are delicious crisp little almondy bites which you usually serve with coffee or ice cream, or with nothing at all if your name is Nancy. You use a very different technique to make these than you would a normal cookie but they are still very easy, the hardest part is piping them onto the baking sheet in straight lines so they bake evenly.


You would not usually decorate langues du chat, although Ladurée always enrobe one end in a lovely pastel colour. I thought this was an excuse to get my sprinkle collection out so used metallic sugar crystals, pearlised sugar dragees and tiny pink sugar hearts - you can of course use less twee decorations or none at all, it is completely up to you. Given as a gift with some good coffee or ice cream I think they would make any food fan feel more loved and appreciated.

I've given two options for the box base - one to keep your love guessing and the other with a space for you to write your name, as they will obviously want to track down their baking admirer to thank you and probably propose.

Just click the small images below and download the templates, then print them onto any colour card you desire. Cut them out, fold and stick them in place and then load them up with cookies - love in a box!

Langues Du Chat or 'Cat's Tongue' Cookies
Makes 20-30 (depending how big you pipe them)

Ingredients
75g butter, softened
115g icing sugar
2 large egg whites
2 tbsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
75g plain flour, sifted

a piping bag with a 8-10mm round nozzle

100g white chocolate, roughly chopped
assorted sprinkles, dragees, sugar decorations (optional)

Method
Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

Cream the butter and icing sugar together for 2-3 minutes until it's pale and fluffy then set aside for a moment while you whisk the egg whites to soft peak stage, now add the caster sugar one tablespoon at a time mixing well after each addition. When you have a glossy meringue like mixture that will hold peaks pour it into the bowl with the butter mix and extracts and fold together gently for a minute or so until most of the lumps are gone. Now add the plain flour in three parts mixing after each. Keep folding together until you have a lump free batter - it will feel a little elastic.

Spoon the batter into the piping bag and pipe onto the baking sheet in 6-7cm lines - try and keep them as straight as possible so they cook up neatly and leave around 5cm space between each one.

Bake in batches for 5-7 minutes turning the baking sheet halfway through so they cook evenly. They should have lightly browned edges but still be pale golden in the middle. Remove to a rack to cool down.

Melt the chopped white chocolate in the microwave or a bain marie and then dip one end of each cookie into it and place back onto the cooling rack. If you are using decorations you will need to use them quickly after dipping each one - if you are too slow the chocolate will set before you get to put them on and won't stick.

Let dry and then place into the box and give to your true love!

If you aren't eating them within the first day you'll need to store them in an air tight container so they don't soften - they'll keep for up to three days.

Mad Hatter Cupcakes and Free Downloadable Toppers

Firstly, I'd like to apologise for being absent for a few weeks. It's been a bit of a crazy one at work and at home and then we had to spend last weekend in Liverpool. Don't ask me about it, we had an awful time and I may explode with anger when ranting about it. The only good things to come of it were buying a sprinkle covered pretzel, visiting Tate Liverpool and the Picasso exhibit, M&S chocolate brownie dessert and finally, finding this postcard in Paperchase.

See that cake that the birds are sitting in? That's a Saint Honore cake from legendary french patisserie Laduree. That's a pricey cake right there. So who the hell would think to cut it open, drain out the rose creme patissiere and stick some fake birds in it? That's the kind of imagination I could only wish to have. Props to you crazy bird cake person, whoever you may be.

FYI the pretzel tasted pretty lame, but boy was it pretty. I'm a sucker for anything with sprinkles on, although to be honest I'm not big on the taste.

But anyway, back to the cupcakes. I had been pretty stuck on what recipe to do this week, I wanted it to be a goodie as I've missed a few weeks and when the lovely Tara called to order some cupcakes for a Mad Hatters Tea Party my mind got a whirring. Of course they'd have to be a little crazy, but not so crazy that they tasted gross. Visual kookiness was key and I think I hit that combination of looking pretty but tame from the outside and containing a lovely surprise inside.

I ended up trying Hummingbird Bakery's standard vanilla cake recipe which is a good standby, not as good as my go to vanilla but still tasty and pretty moist. The frosting was a combination of vanilla flavoured white and strawberry flavoured grey swirled together. And what was the surprise inside? Well here you go...

Mad Hatter's Rainbow Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 12 standard American size cupcakes
Recipe adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf

Ingredients
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter at room temperature
120ml milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tsp each of blue, red, green and yellow food colourings
extra plain flour for thickening the coloured batter if needed

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 C / 325 F.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter until it reaches a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the milk and mix until well incorporated.

Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk in a seperate bowl and then add to the flour mixture. Beat until well combined, scraping down the bowl sides if needed and then mixing for a further few minutes until the mixture is thickened and smooth.

Divide the mixture equally between four bowls. One at a time tint the batters with the food colourings, the strength of colour varies depending on which make of food dye you use. Gel colourings are best as they are more concentrated and therefore need less adding to give a good bright hue.

Add one teaspoon of colouring at a time, you want a really vivid colour to the batters. If when the correct colour is achieved the mixture is quite thin add more flour a tablespoon at a time until it is back to the consistency it was before adding the dye.

Split each colour of batter between twelve standard American cupcake cases so that there is a little of each of the four colours in each one - you should end up with something like the image below.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are slightly browned and the cake springs right back when touched. Leave to cool thoroughly before frosting.

Vanilla and Strawberry Monotone Frosting
Makes enough to generously frost 12 cupcakes with a little leftover

Ingredients
500g sifted icing sugar
160g unsalted butter at room temperature
50ml milk
1/2tsp vanilla extract
1-2 drops concentrated strawberry flavouring oil
1-2 tsp black food colouring

Large 14" piping bag
Extra large closed star tip
Card suit sugar sprinkles
Gold edible glitter
12 Eat Me cupcake toppers - link below

Method
Beat the butter and half the icing sugar until well combined, then add the milk and remaining sugar. Mix until smooth and thoroughly combined and then divide between two bowls. Add the vanilla to one and mix thoroughly. Next add the black food colouring to the second bowl along with the concentrated strawberry flavouring oil and beat until smooth and there are no streaks in the colour.

Put both the colours of frosting into the piping bag trying to keep one colour to each side of the bag in order to give a good stripe. Squeeze the icing out of the bag until you start to see the stripe in the icing and then frost the cupcakes squeezing the bag gently and using a circular motion so as to cover the cakes completely.

Sprinkle or place on the card suit sprinkles as quickly as possible so they stick before the frosting starts to set and then add a little shake of gold edible glitter to each. Stick an Eat Me cake topped into the centre of each frosting swirl and arrange on a lovely platter ready for a wonderfully mad tea party.

Notes
I use a brand of gel food colours called Americolor which I order from an amazing US website called Bake It Pretty - click here for a link to the product on their website. You should browse www.bakeitpretty.com anyway, it's such a gorgeous site!

You can also buy the concentrated flavouring oils from there site - click here for a link. You can use them to flavour just about anything - cakes, frostings, chocolate, fudge, candy, drinks, cookies and much much more.

Eat Me Cupcake Toppers - Ok guys, click here or on the image below for a link to the downloadable cupcake topper templates.

I cut mine out using a 2" scalloped circle paper punch which you can get from several online craft shops and stuck them together with a cocktail stick between using double sided tape.

I bought my card suit sprinkles from eBay along with the gold edible glitter and my black cupcake cases.

If any of you give them a try do send me photos of your results!!!