While Mother’s Day in the US started in the early 1900’s and was made popular thanks to greeting card company, Hallmark, here in the UK, it has a much older origin. During the 16th century, people would return to their mother church on the fourth Sunday in Lent. People in domestic service were given the day off to visit church with their mother and other family members. Although celebrated on different dates, overtime, it has become more secular and more in line with the US celebrating mothers and motherhood.

The last few years, I have of course, sent cookies to the important women in my life – my mother, my step-mother, my mother-in-law, and my sister – sweet things for sweet people.

This year, I wanted to try a vintage tea effect. A combination of various wet on wet techniques (roses and polka dots), along with some piped roses, completed the effect. I wanted to carry the rose theme through to the flavour of the cookies, so while the biscuit itself is flavoured with vanilla, the icing was made with rose water (natural rose extract diluted with water). Be wary when doing this as different rose waters have varying strengths.

Wishing a wonderful Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there.

Basic Sugar Cookie

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Ingredients

• 350g Plain Flour
• 100g Self-Raising Flour
• 125g Unsalted Butter
• 125g Caster Sugar
• 125g Golden Syrup
• 1 Egg (large)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Directions

1.	Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2.	Mix the vanilla essence and golden syrup into the egg & add to the butter/sugar mixture a little at a time (throw in a handful of the flour to stop the egg and butter separating if needs be)
3.	Gradually add the rest of the flour
4.	Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for about 2 hours
5.	Preheat the oven to 350°F / 176°C / Gas Mark 4
6.	Roll out the dough evenly on a lightly floured surface
7.	Cut out cookies using a cutter – do not wiggle the cutter, just press down firmly. Try to make the best use of the dough in one go, as each roll incorporates more flour which can create flour pockets that cause bumps to form while cooking. If this happens, you can usually press the lumps down before the cookie is lifted off the baking sheet.
8.	Place your cookies on a buttered or lined baking tray. Chilling the cookies again at this stage for 3-5 minutes will ensure they keep their shape while cooking (unnecessary if cooking from frozen).
9.	Bake for 10-12 minutes (maybe less if your cookies are small) until the edges start to turn slightly golden.
10.	Leave to cool for one minute on the baking tray for it to firm up before transferring carefully to a cooking rack
11.	Ensure your cookie is fully cooled before icing.

Note

• When decorating Sugar Cookies, lay your cookies on baking parchment. Pipe thick royal icing around the edge of the design, then fill with a slightly runnier royal icing and decorate. Leave for about 12 hours to set before storing.
• Once baked, store for a week in an airtight container. They may last up to 2 weeks if you substitute half the butter with Trex (vegetable shortening).
• To save yourself even more time, prepare your dough in advance, cut out cookies and place on lined baking sheets and freeze. Once frozen, layer the frozen cut outs with baking parchment and bake when needed. Allow 5 minutes at room temperature before baking.
• You can freeze most cookie dough mixtures for about 12 months, or even the baked cookies for about 4 weeks. Ensure they are fully defrosted before icing.