Spider Web Cookies

The recipe (cookies):

Ingredients: 

• 375 mL flour
• 200 mL cocoa powder
• 2 mL salt
• 185 mL margarine
• 300 mL icing sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 mL vanilla

Method: 

1.  In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, salt. Set the mixture aside.
2. Use an electric mixer to cream the margarine and icing sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
3. Add the flour mixture; mix on low speed until thoroughly combined.
4. Divide the dough in half; wrap in plastic wrap.
5. Chill the dough for 10 minutes in the freezer.
6. Heat oven to 350°F or 180°C
7. Roll the dough out between two pieces of wax paper until about 5 mm thick.
8. Cut out a tracer for the web shape from scale paper.
9. Cut out each cookie.
10. Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes (personally I couldn't really tell if it's ready or not because you can't tell by the colour)
    
11. Cool completely on wire racks. 
    

    

    Finished Product (not yet decorated)

    The recipe (Royal Icing):
    Ingredients:
12.  250 grams sugar
13.  2 mL cream of tartar
14. 15 mL whip powder
15.  50 mL water 
16. black food colouring/ 30 mL chocolate chips/ black icing paste

Method:

1. Whip together the ingredients in a medium bowl
2. To make the cobweb design, begin by icing the cookie with white royal icing. 
3. To 50 mL of the icing add 30 mL of melted chocolate chips or black food colouring or use black icing paste. 
4. Pipe out a spiral of black icing starting from the center to the edges of the cookies  
5. Draw a bamboo skewer or use the tips of a sharp knife and drag it from the center to each point of the cookie, then from the inner curves back to the center.

   

   Voila! Spiddy cookies!