One of my Instagram friends thislakshmi, asked me the other day whether I did decorated cookies as she doesn't see pictures of them on my feed. The answer to that was no, not because I don't want to, but because I'm intimidated by piping icing!
It sounds silly but I see loads of really cool cookie treats that I want to make but then I wimp out because I don't think it will look any good.
When she asked me about it, I realised that I'd let that fear stop me from actually improving my skills because I didn't even start!
How often do we do that, become so paralysed by a fear of failure that we don't end up doing, creating or having the things that we desire?
Armed with the revelation that fear was holding me back from making beautiful cookies, I turned to my new baking bible - Amy Atlas's Sweet Designs and made some sugar cookies (recipe above). Then I made myself some royal icing, (homemade royal icing by the way, is so much more delicious than shop bought or ready-made stuff) and got to piping. I was so excited that I didn't even use any piping nozzles!
It's not the neatest but it's a start and I have now conquered that (irrational) fear of royal icing! I've got loads of ideas for what I want to do next so watch this space!