Out of Africa
I’ve always had a bit of a fondness of Africa – just looking at the animals you can tell it’s a pretty amazing place. Although you wouldn’t immediately guess it if you met him, Kevin is African. South African that is. He moved here with his family way back when he was still in single digits, so was well and truly Kiwi-ised by the time I met him six or so years ago.
There are only a few traits of Kevin’s that give any clue that he isn’t a born and raised Kiwi – he says words like ‘off’ with a very round ‘o’ sound, loves biltong an unusual amount and is very happy whenever boerewors is on the menu. I love the fact that Kevin’s (South) African, and happily ask him all about it whenever something African pops up in a movie or TV show – as you can imagine, I’m revelling in David Attenborough’s Africa being screened at the moment!
When I ask Kevin what he misses about South Africa he only ever says two things – family and the animals. Unfortunately, I can’t do anything about the first thing, but do my best to bring African animals into our lives as much as possible: frequent trips to the zoo, photos of African animals in silly poses… whatever I pops into my mind really! My latest tactic? Baking African animal cookies… with a twist.
The twist? They’re 3D! Just pop a couple of cookie legs under these animals and they’ll stand up like a tasty version of the real deal – cookie cousins if you will. I found a great 3D animal cookie cutter set at New World (the Metro one on Queen Street) on my lunch break for just $10, immediately thought of Kevin and was basically forced by the universe to put it in my basket (that’s what I claim anyway).
Check out these cute 3D critters I made the other day – not bad huh?
The secret to getting cut-out cookies to slot together once baked is using a recipe that doesn’t expand much once in the oven. Unfortunately for those among us who groan at the thought of chilling dough (myself included), it really is the best way to keep those cookies in perfect shape. But sometimes sugar cookies can be a little bland, so if you don’t plan on icing your biscuits (with these cutters you don’t really need to) then you need to have a great tasting biscuit! Check out this recipe for lemon sugar cookies – they’re totally morish, with just the right amount of lemony zing.
I hope you like them!
Kirsten
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