I've always liked those neat and tidy iced biscuits you can buy -and was really surprised how staright forward it is to mimic the effect at home. I'm not saying my sugary-bats are up there, but they look pretty fangy.
I used St. Delia of Smith's gingerbread men recipe as it is utterly brilliant and fool-proof and you can re-work the pastry several times (which is excellent if you have a little 'help'). Then I waited until the 'help' was busy elsewhere before I embarked on the fiddly bit as it would have looked like a bat massacre...
You will need:
Powdered icing sugar
Paintbrush (small)
Couple of tbsp water
Black colouring (the Silver Spoon brand has a really intense colour that doesn't go grey)
Small piping tubes, ready filled (I used a Sainsbury's chocolate selection)
Technique (I use this in the loosest sense of the word!):
Using the ready filled tubes, pipe about 3-5mm from the edge a border around the outside of your biscuit. Try to go reasonably fast and allow the icing to 'drop' from the tube onto the cookie -I know this sounds a tad dare devil but you actually get a smoother line. Set aside to dry a little.
Mix up the powdered sugar, colour and water. The quanities you need depend on the number of cookies, but it's easier to start with a small amount and make more. You need to have the thickness of thick cream (that you can spoon) or cake batter. Using the brush dollop the icing as in-fill onto the cookie and push to the edges. You need to do this quite thickly to get a shiny finish -it's like you're shoving it around rather than painting it! Put to one side to set.
Go back to the ready filled tubes and add wing details and fangs. allow to set before wrapping or allowing small people to eat, unless you want to have a black icing disaster on your sofa...I speak from experience!
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