Les Petits Chefs were fortunate enough to welcome Adell Shneer back into the lab this week for her FIFTH visit (she’s come before to make cheese blintzes, help our with our Food Revolution Day event, make Pad Thai and soup and pasta and each time, we’ve all had so much fun!). When she suggested something with a Hallowe’en theme for this session a few weeks ago, I knew the boys would love it. My only caveat was that it had to be something challenging for them. Adell came up with the idea of making some sugar cookies and bringing them in for the boys to decorate with proper Royal Icing so she could show them some techniques (making a border around the edge then filling the cookie with icing and using toothpicks to make patterns in the icing).
She arrived with some gorgeous pumpkin shaped cookies and a few she’d decorated to give the boys an visual to work with. Everyone was very excited to see these as they entered the lab!
Adell demonstrated the techniques and then sent the boys off to their stations to work through each one. It was MOST organised and not at all the sugar-high chaos I had imagined!
There’s really not much to say about the photos from this week. The pictures really ARE worth a thousand words. I can tell you, though that despite the SUGAR factor, the boys really were extremely calm. Who knew – give the boys some sugar to play with and they’ll focus brilliantly!
I’m particularly impressed with the boys’ piping skills – as evidenced by my adult macaron and pastry classes, this is a skill not everyone seems to naturally possess yet the boys approached this with their typical “can do” attitudes.
Check out the precision….
There’s a lot of joy in these cookies, wouldn’t you say?
The boys seemed very pleased with their work too 🙂
SUCH focus and concentration…
Like last week’s sushi class, the boys easily kept their focus for the entire hour, proving that when they are completely engaged in a task (oh and when there’s a yummy treat at the end of the period), even tired and hungry after a long day at school, they can produce some beautiful food. Speaking of hungry, ahem, yes, some of them had black mouths after “testing” the black sugar whilst they worked LOL!
Adell used this sugar cookie recipe and this recipe for the Royal Icing. I imagine a few of the boys will be using these recipes again soon too!
And hey, even *I* managed to make a halfway decent cookie – check it out:
A HUGE thanks to Adell for taking time out of her busy life to work with the boys. We SO appreciate it.
** Canadians – have you checked out my “What’s for Dinner?” contest? A gorgeous $350 gift basket is up for grabs!
These are AWESOME, they did a fantastic job!
Cheers, I was pretty pleased with them!
I was so impressed with the creativity, concentration and imagination that went into making the cookies. The boys are a great example of what you can achieve when you give kids an opportunity to learn how to cook, bake, and decorate!
You boys ROCK!
Yes indeed, it’s all about giving them the chance!
It’s certainly not often that there are posts with Les Petits Chefs creating sweet treats so as a cookie decorator I was delighted that Adell chose to show the boys how to decorate Halloween cookies!
While my grand-kids love to and often help me prepare meals when they come to visit one of our favourite activities is decorating cookies together. Once the decorating space has been set up, just being around to assist when/if asked is all that’s required of me. I love watching their creativity set lose on a cookie palette.
It obvious by these pictures that Les Petits Chef enjoyed this project with Adell and I love their focus and creativity displayed in your photos. They sure know how to handle a piping bag and the invaluable toothpicks!
I can imagine how excited they were to take this project home to their parents and I hope you took your awesome cookie home to proudly show off too!
I love watching their creativity too!
Love, love, love this!!!
Wow thanks Bridget!!
I LOVE these icing cobwebs and the boys did a seriously impressive job. Bravo!
Aren’t they great???
Again, like the sushi session, a very fiddly job requiring concentration. Again, the boys stood up and showed that, if something is interesting enough, the concentration follows. Great stuff boys, well done.
Totally!
Those look great!
Thanks Andrea!