Sugar Cookie - FAIL!!!

I have always always always wanted to make beautiful decorated cut out cookies. Lots of them that I could display beautifully in cellophane with ribbons and bows and you know, just be beautiful.

Well today was my first attempt, 2nd baking day into my baking journey and it was HORRIFIC!!!

What went wrong?? OMG What went right?

I found a cookie dough recipe online and I got stuck into the sugar cookie project with enthusiasm and gusto. I was sure that by the end of this baking day I as going to have those beautifully decorated cut out cookies that I was desperate to be the creator of. I couldn't have been more wrong.

The dough was terrible, hard to handle, hard to roll, hard to cook. I chilled it and floured it and chilled it and floured it and it was still a sticky mess. But still I carried on determined...

I managed to get a few cut outs done and on a baking sheet. I was proud of my achievement, they looked the part, they would be beautiful after all!

8-10 minutes later my soul was destroyed...

 I had created swollen behemoths, not beautiful cut outs. I have a few ideas of where I may have went wrong.

1. my eggs were straight out of fridge
2. my butter was straight out of fridge
3. over kneading the dough
4. crap recipe

So next time, if I can actually ever get over the heartbreak of this disaster I will bear these things in mind.

I was just going to throw them away at this point, but I tasted them, and even though they looked horrible and had a very bizarre texture, they tasted OK, so I decided to ice them anyway.

I iced some with just regular icing sugar which I piped with a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off, that was fine, not fantastic, but at least I got some icing on the suckers. Now onto the rolled fondant AKA Disaster No.2

I had bought a pack of powdered fondant icing which you add water to, NEVER AGAIN. An awful mess that created a horrible sticky goo that was hard to handle. Again with lots of perseverance and swearing I managed to cut out 4 heart shapes and stick them on the cookies.

So cookie ordeal over, I am considering giving up baking FOREVER.