This year, 12,700 Australian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Yes, you read that correctly. 12,700 women. This blog post is dedicated to the 1 in 8 women in Australia who will hear the words “You have breast cancer” before their 85th birthday.
In 2009, Mama Sweet heard these words.
Mama Sweet had the best possible outcome from the one of the worst situations you can face – only a few rounds of surgery, no chemo or radiation treatment. We thank our lucky stars that she received a mammogram reminder letter, made the appointment and the cancer was discovered early. It was a tough few months but Mama Sweet took it all with a smile and made us all very proud.
Cancer Council’s Pink Ribbon Day aims to raise awareness about breast cancer and raise much needed funding for research, early prevention and support programs. Cancer Council is one of the few Aussie charities that not only invest money into cancer research, but also support the patients and their loved ones facing the disease every day.
Pink Ribbon Day is held on Monday 24th October. You can help support the cause by buying a pink ribbon pin or one of Cancer Council’s other fabulous merchandise items like this pack of metal cookie cutters.
The cookie cutters are made of high quality aluminum metal and come in the following shapes: ribbon (5cm w x8cm h), daffodil (8cm w x 6cm h), large heart (6cm w x 6cm h) and two small hearts (4.5cm w x 4.5cm h). They are a total bargain at $10 and every cent goes towards the fantastic cause.
This is a really simple to make cookie dough. Seriously. Just melt some gorgeous gooey ingredients, fold in the dry flours and then cool in the fridge while you make a cup of tea. Then roll out nice and thin and use the cutters to press out your shapes. Keep them tightly spaced so you can use the maximum amount of dough at one time, saves you rolling out over and over.
Line them up on a baking tray and pop them in the oven. Try to keep similar size shapes on the one tray – it will mean you don’t have to worry about uneven browning… or worse, burnt edges!
Once cooked, cool on a baking tray. You need to wait until they are completely cool before you can begin decorating with the royal icing. Start this process while they are cooling, it will only take your two minutes. If you can’t wait or company is already at the door, just dust lightly with icing sugar and they’ll be the perfect accompaniment to your morning tea.
If you want to do filled in cookies, outline the cookies in royal icing, then when dry fill in with a runny icing. For a great how-to guide visit Sweetopia. A simple and visually effective decoration is simple stripes or dots, or even words. A lovely idea would be to write the names of survivors or people currently fighting cancer.
There are so many ways you can help make a difference and support Cancer Council’s Pink Ribbon Day – donate money, volunteer to sell pink goodies, wear pink to work or host an event with all your friends and family. The most important thing women can do though is to do a self-breast exam or visit your GP with any concerns they have. One little checkup could just save your life.
- 75g butter
- 75g brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon honey
- Zest of 1 large orange
- 2 tablespoon orange juice, freshly squeezed
- 225g plain flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 160 degree celcius fan forced. Line baking tray or cookie sheet with baking paper.
- Add butter, honey, sugar and orange zest and juice in saucepan and melt over low heat.
- Sift dry ingredients into a bowl and then fold wet mixture into dry. Mix well with a wooden spoon until mixture comes together and it becomes firm. Wrap dough in plastic and keep in fridge for 40 mins.
- Lightly kneed dough with your hands and then roll out dough with a rolling pin until ⅓-1/2 cm thick. Press cutters to make shapes. If dough is cracking too much then add some fresh orange juice to moisten, knead again and then roll out. Transfer shapes to baking tray.
- Bake cookies in the oven for approx 4-5 minutes for small and 6-7 mins for large, depending on your oven’s heat and the thickness of the cookies.
- Combine 250g icing sugar sifted and 2 TB spoons of lemon/orange juice or water. I use egg-free version as Mr Sticky is allergic.
Cancer Council’s Pink Ribbon Day
Monday 24 October (Merchandise for sale on Friday 21 October)
www.pinkribbonday.com.au
www.cancer.org.au
www.facebook.com/pinkribbonday
www.facebook.com/cancercouncilaustralia
Note: At the time of Mama Sweet’s diagnosis I started volunteering at Cancer Council. After interning for a year and fresh out of uni, I was fortunate to be able to gain full-time employment with Cancer Council. So this blog post is mixing a bit of business and personal – the day job and the love of baking. My opinions here are my own and the cookie cutters were purchased by Miss Sweet not donated by Cancer Council.
