The festive spirit was alive and well at Lexis Byron Bay this morning when we did Christmas Cookie Decorating!
We had a Christmas playlist made on Spotify in the background playing while we decorated our cookies.
Ingredients used:
cookies/ biscuits
icing sugar
butter
water
cherries
sour worms
pretzels
desiccated coconut
sprinkles
smarties
chocolate buttons
Students were creative in what designs they made! Some examples were:
Christmas trees
stars
hearts
gingerbread men
snowmen
baubles
lights
Christmas wreaths
Christmas puddings
reindeers
It was a messy and yummy morning!
Hope you all enjoyed this fun activity and eating the creations afterwards 😋
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Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing and Yoga in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Have you ever stopped to wonder why we do certain Christmas Traditions? Did you know that Cookie decoratingdates back to at least the 14th century in Switzerland? Springerle cookie molds were carved from wood and used to impress Biblical designs into cookies. One of the earliest recorded forms of cookie decorating is the springerle, and the oldest known springerle mold is housed at the Swiss national museum in Zurich, Switzerland.
The artistic element of cookie making also can be traced back to Medieval Germany.
Lebkuchen was crafted into fancy shapes and decorated with sugar. Lebkuchen is a traditional German baked Christmas cookie, somewhat resembling gingerbread.
During the 17th century, Dutch and German settlers introduced cookie cutters, decorative molds, and festive holiday cookie decorations to the United States.
Today cookie decorating traditions continue in many places in the world and include such activities as cookie decorating parties, competitions, creating cookie bouquets and cookie gift baskets, and simply decorating cookies with others can be a fun activity.
Join us at Lexis Byron Bay this Thursday the 11th of December at 11.30am or 2pm for our own version of Christmas Cookie Decorating!
Make sure to sign up at reception!
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing and Yoga in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Thursday afternoon we got together in the student kitchen to do some baking in preparation for the official RSPCA Cupcake Day! It has been a delicious week so far! Many students have been participating by baking all sorts of incredible home made treats to sell. All donations will go directly to supporting animals in need!
Thursday afternoon we made Chocolate Chip Cookies (with extra chocolate chips) and Classic Cupcakes with chocolate sauce and butter icing!!!
We followed this nice and easy recipe:
Once we had rolled the cookie mixture into balls and placed on the tray we added even more choc chips to the top before putting them in the oven to bake! 😀
Whilst the cookies were in the oven we got started on making the cupcakes!
We didn’t have a muffin tray to use, so they did come out of the oven a little bit square.. but they still tasted delicious so we didn’t mind. They took around 20 minutes to bake, which gave us plenty of time to prepare the butter icing and chocolate sauce for decorating. We also had sprinkles, coconut and left over chocolate chips to use!
Don’t they look cute? <3 You can try them in today’s bake sale at break and lunch time along with many other yummy treats! Help us reach our goal of $300 by donating generously!!
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Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing and Yoga in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Yesterday afternoon we all managed to give ourselves a belly ache by over indulging on the chocolate treats that we created.
We started off by making chocolate brownies following this simple recipe:
Ingredients
125 g butter
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup plain flour
Recipe
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan.
Stir in sugar, cocoa, vanilla and salt.
Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Quickly whisk in eggs.
Fold through sifted flour.
Spoon the mixture into a greased and lined 18 x 28cm slab tin.
Bake at 170C for 25-30 minutes.
The mixture will seem soft but will harden on cooling.
Allow to cool in tin before removing.
Tallita enjoying cleaning up, a little bit too much.
We also decided to give chocolate chip biscuits a go. All was going well..
Until it was time to take them out of the oven..
Something had gone slightly wrong and we had managed to create one giant cookie pancake.. HAHAHA!
Luckily it still tasted delicious and we all managed to laugh at our epic fail.
With the left over chocolate, we made MORE chocolate biscuits that we shared with everyone in the student kitchen.
What an absolutely delicious afternoon. I hope you have all recovered from the belly aches and sugar highs!
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Today was our Intermediate class’ turn to try and raise the most money for the RSPCA!
Teacher Mel and her class baked tasty chocolate chip cookies!
One batch was slightly more cooked so they were being sold at the discounted rate of 50 cents, with the soft and gooey batch going for $2.
So far they have raised $44 but there’s still cookies left! Donations welcome until Friday 🙂
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing and Yoga in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
We started by making chocolate chip cookies, and then while these cooked in the oven…..
we melted dark and milk chocolate and mixed it with cornflakes to make Easter nests!
There was a lot of food testing happening as they were being made; but as Celine pointed out, this is very important for quality control!
Once the cookies were out of the oven the students decorated them with icing; there were a few interesting designs not related to Easter….
Both treats are simple and fun to make and tasted delicious!
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing and Yoga in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Today we baked Gingerbread Cookies for our Christmas cooking activity.
These cookies smell SO GOOD as they are cooking. It is difficult not to eat them all before decorating them!
The students were all very patient and decorated all the cookies in lovely, artistic designs.
Then they ate them and discovered they taste just as good as they smell while cooking. YUM!
If your want to make these at home, follow the recipe below…
GINGERBREAD COOKIES
Ingredients
2¼ cups plain flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
¾ cup melted margarine
¼ cup golden syrup
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line baking tray with baking paper.
Add all ingredients to a bowl. Mix well then knead until combined into a ball of dough.
Lightly flour the table.
Roll the dough out onto the flour to approximately 0.5cm thickness.
Use cookie cutters to make your desired cookie shapes.
Place the cookies on to the baking trays and bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned.
Allow to cool and decorate as desired.
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Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Today we got into the kitchen to bake some Anzac Biscuits!
These Australian cookies originated approximately 100 years ago and were created to be sent overseas to soldiers at war. The biscuits contain ingredients that don’t spoil easily and the cookies, once baked and cooled, become hard and crunchy – and delicious!
After following the recipe to prepare the mixture, the biscuits only need about ten minutes to bake. Then, the hardest part of the whole process, you need to wait for the cookies to cool before eating them if you want to experience the delightful crunch that Anzac biscuits are known for!
If you want to try making these at home, here is the recipe:
ANZAC BISCUITS
2 cups rolled oats 1 cup plain flour 2/3 cup sugar 3/4 cup desiccated coconut 1/3 cup golden syrup 125g butter 1 teaspoon bicarb soda 3 tablespoons boiling water
Preheat oven to 160°C.
Place the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a bowl and mix to combine.
Melt the butter and golden syrup together in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly.
Combine the bicarb soda with the water and then add to the butter mixture.
Pour butter mixture into the oat mixture, and mix together until well combined.
Place a large spoonful of the mixture onto baking trays lined with baking paper. Flatten to 7cm rounds and make sure there is room between each cookie for them to spread while baking.
Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden in colour.
Allow to cool on baking trays for 5 minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Eat them and enjoy this tasty Australian treat!
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Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Today we baked some Australian cookies, ANZAC Biscuits. These tasty treats are very quick and easy to make, so we baked two batches of cookies!
Aya and Sua decided to get creative with their biscuits by sprinkling the mixture with ground coffee and then cooking them in the sandwich press… They insist that the biscuits were just as delicious with this method of cooking!
The rest of the cookies were baked in the oven and came out perfectly. Needless to say, there are no cookies left!
Here is the recipe to try at home:
ANZAC BISCUITS
Ingredients
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
2/3 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
1/3 cup golden syrup
125g butter
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
2 tablespoons hot water
Method
Preheat oven to 160°C.
Place the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a bowl and mix to combine.
Cook the golden syrup and butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring, until melted.
Combine the bicarb soda with the water and add to the butter mixture.
Pour into the oat mixture and mix well to combine.
Place a large spoonful of the mixture onto baking trays lined with baking paper and flatten to 7cm rounds, allowing room to spread.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until deep golden in colour.
Allow to cool on baking trays for 5 minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
EAT THEM ALL! 🙂
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Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
This afternoon we baked Echidna Cookies – cookies that look like echidnas! If you are unsure what an echidna is, it is an egg-laying mammal that is native to Australia and is somewhat similar in looks to a hedgehog. To find out more about echidnas, check out http://wildcare.org.au/species-information/echidnas/.
Seven students joined me to create these delicious treats that (sort of) resemble the echidna!
Everyone agreed that the cookies looked adorable and were very tasty too – they were all eaten very quickly!
If you want to try making these at home, here is the recipe:
Preheat oven to 160°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
In a small bowl, whisk margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla.
Combine flour, ground almonds and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
Shape 1 tablespoon of dough into a ball; pinch the dough to form a nose and feet. Repeat until all the dough is used up and place each cookie 2 inches apart on the prepared tray.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Let stand for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely.
In a small saucepan, melt chocolate and coconut oil over very low heat, constantly stirring until smooth.
Holding a cookie by the head, spoon chocolate over the back leaving the face uncovered. Allow any excess to drip off. Place on the baking paper and immediately add sprinkles/flake or slivered almonds for the spikes, and add any other decorations for the eyes, tongue and feet.
Place in the fridge to set, then eat them all! 🙂
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Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
