Me and my mom discussed our Christmas menu on the phone the other day. She was happy to say that she had discovered a great gingerbread dough that happened to be vegan. I got excited too and instantly wanted to try it out! Last year I also made a vegan gingerbread icing and didn't post a recipe. Not this year! The recipe is here. It's ridiculously easy, foolproof and delicious. You only need two ingredients - powdered sugar and lemon juice.
I had some unrefined powdered sugar at home and it has such a nice caramel color. If you want to add some natural color, I recommend to experiment with different berry flours or other natural colorings. I used cranberry flour and the flavor was absolutely amazing! It was a bit sour and suited perfectly with crispy, spicy and sweet gingerbread cookies. Freshly baked gingerbreads are one of life's true pleasures!
Talking about life's pleasures - I've been playing a lot of The Sims 2 again. I've been loving The Sims series since I was 11 years old. It's fantastic to build different houses, families, businesses, animals and to travel and to do whatever you want. When I was playing the first Sims, complete strangers always came to my kitchen, ate my food and then slept in their underwear on the asphalt. And of course all these house fires! Oh the times and the double lives. In the game, of course.
It's a bit tragic comic that The Sims' creator Will Wright made the game after inspired by his own tragedy. His house burned down during the Oakland firestorms in 1991. He had to rebuild his life and The Sims is all about starting over and creating a new life. He had been thinking about making a game that represents an interactive doll house. And The Sims was born. Of course this game has a lot of house fires that are very hard to extinguish. At first, he wanted The Sims to be an architectural design game. But someone suggested that the houses should have homeowners too and the player should be rated on their quality of life experience. When he pitched his idea to Maxis' board of directors, they said the guy is out of his mind. Doll houses are for girls and girls don't play video games. But Maxis' owner EA was more enthusiastic and gave a green light. As of today, The Sims franchise has sold almost 200 million copies. But now let's end this little history session and bake and ice some gingerbread cookies! In real life or in The Sims :)
Preparation time: 1 minute + icing time
Serves: the icing is for two large trays of cookies
- 8 Tbsp (unrefined) powdered sugar (about ½ cup)
- 4 tsp lemon juice
+ a bit of berry flour or other natural colorings, if you want
Directions:
Mix (sift, if you need) the powdered sugar with lemon juice. It should have a nice and creamy texture. Not too thick and not too runny. Now ice the cookies. Let them sit for a while. Enjoy! :)
PS! If you feel that the mixture is too runny, add more sugar. If it's too thick, add a dash of lemon juice.
