When you look at the calendar and see that you have cooking club on Hallowe’en day, there’s only one thing for it – you invite your friend and cookie decorator extraordinaire, Adell Shneer (who has worked with the boys on a number of occasions before) to come in and show them some professional cookie decorating techniques (with tasty results!). This was Adell’s SEVENTH visit to the school to work with the boys in cooking club and understandably, she’s a very popular guest chef!
The boys started out mixing their icing colours…
I was convinced they’d go bright for Hallowe’en but they veered more into the pastels…
We ended up with some *interesting* colours 😉
Then we got to the fun part. Adell had outlined the cookies so that the boys would easily be able to fill in the middle without worrying about the icing running off before it set…
They worked carefully with toothpicks to evenly distribute the icing…
And some of them even got into some more intricate designs…
I won’t even pretend it was all smooth sailing because there was a point where there was food colouring all over (including on white dress shirts!) and it was a little bit of organised chaos. 14 boys in a small space armed with squeeze bottles of icing was a little bit scary 😉 But once they had their colours mixed and squeeze bottles in hand, they settled down to work – and it was amazing to see their creativity!
It’s always a good day when you can combine another subject with “cooking” club in the lab love that the boys got a lesson in using the colour wheel to create their colours and then practised their fine motor skills as they manipulated the icing on the cookies. Anytime the boys are in the lab making food, whether it’s an actual meal or decorating cookies, I love to see how much *more* than cooking and baking they actually learn.
We’re so thankful to Adell who took the time to work with the boys – I can’t say it often enough but the generosity of the Toronto food community never ceases to amaze me. I’m so very grateful there are so many people who want to have a hand in shaping the next generation’s knowledge about and attitude towards food.
Stay tuned next week as we take a field trip to a Toronto institution to cook in their kitchens!
Looks like tons of fun. Your bakers were very creative.
They are so very creative and yes, they had a lot of fun!
Those are some lucky boys. Adell is amazing and one of the best! The cookies turned out beautifully and I’m sure the kids were very happy. 🙂
Yes, we are so very lucky at my school! The boys had a blast!
Wow they are far better at pastries than I. Maybe I need to be in the cooking club…
We’d love to have you 😉 No, seriously, I find that if they are engaged (and there’s the prospect of eating!), they are very focussed and produce wonderful work. So, cookies = wonderful work!
Wow they did a fantastic job. Their designs are very creative!
The upcoming field trip sounds like it will be a pretty cool adventure!
Have a spectacular weekend Mardi.
Thanks so much – yes, their designs are very creative 🙂 Love seeing what they come up with!
Great cookies! I love making cookies with kids- I do it for my daughter’s girl guides group every year!
I love seeing what they come up with in terms of decoration – so much creativity!