On my recent trip to the USA I purchased a little booklet entitled Old Fashioned Cookie Recipes and a couple of cookie cutters. I love to bake but have never tried cookies before. At work, we have a cake club rota where 14 of us each take it in turns every week to bake and then at a specified time we sit down and share cake. Well this week just gone was my rota week and I thought I would give the cookies a try. Yes I agree they are not technically cakes but they have eggs, sugar, flour and butter so will do just fine!

You will need:

• 1 cup / 8oz sugar
• 1/2 cup / 4oz butter softened
• 2 eggs beaten
• Grated rind of 1 lemon
• 3 cups / 24oz plain (all purpose) flour
• 2tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• Granulated sugar (if you DON'T plan to ice them
• Icing sugar & lemon juice for the icing (optional)

And this is what you have to do.....

1. Preheat the oven to 400F / 200C
2. Cream the sugar and butter together then blend in the egg and grated lemon rind.
3. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture and knead until well bound adding more flour if necessary,
5. On a lightly floured board roll out the dough to about 1/8" thick using a rolling pin,
6. Cut into shapes with the cookies cutter or a knife and lay on a baking tray,
7. If you are NOT icing them, sprinkle with granulated sugar.
   
8. Bake in the oven for approximately 8 minues.
9. When the cookies have cooled if you are icing them mix together the juice of a lemon with enough icing sugar to make a thick icing paste, I used about 4tblsp of icing sugar. Coat the top of the cookies with the icing and allow to set before eating!

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of my cookies as they were eaten very quickly but people did say they were nice so I passed the cake club test!

If you bake these cookies let me know how they turned out!