Moss Cookies - #30DaysWild

   I quite like moss. It's such a simple but inviting plant. It can look so soft and cushiony, and it's always such a gorgeous shade of green. I've always wanted to try painting the side of the house with it like Anna Garforth but I've no idea what to do so I've not bothered giving it much thought. But I wanted to do something with moss for #30DaysWild, so I thought about a cake. As you do.
   I did some searching of different ways to create a mossy effect on a cake and one method was to make green cookies and sprinkle it over the cake. I thought that was probably the simplest method and looked quite good, but I'm admittedly trying to watch the sweets (so such a project is just to torture myself, really) so a cake wouldn't work out too well since I'd end up with a lot of it. But I wondered then if you couldn't achieve the same results with just cookies. Well, you can.

   These are just simple green cookies flipped over with crumbs sprinkled over them. They couldn't be easier! The crumbs are loose but a bit of buttercream made to match the colour of the cookies and scraped over like butter on toast would provide a little something for the crumbs to cling to. You could put these on or around a woodland cake or use them in a woodland party or wedding, or just as a simple but effective treat. There's no way you can get these wrong! I made some little rice paper flowers to add a little punch, too!

Ingredients:
100g softened butter
125g flour
50g sugar
1 tsp vanilla/lemon juice/chosen flavouring
Moss green food colouring - mix your own or use ready-mixed like Wilton's Green Moss
Alternatively, try with matcha green tea powder for a natural colouring.

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4
2. Cream the butter until it's soft using a handheld mixer, then add the sugar and beat until it's fluffy.
3. Add the colour and the vanilla (or preferred flavouring) and mix it in, then sift in the flour and mix until it forms a dough.
4. Tear off pieces of dough and form them into balls, then place them on a lined cookie sheet, baking tray or silicone mat. Using a butter knife or offset spatula, haphazardly flatten the dough. Cut the edge of the tool into the dough and drag slightly to really rough them up.

5. Put them in the oven and bake for around 20 minutes or until firm.
6. Let the cookies cool before removing them from the tray/mat, then transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
7. Take two of the cookies and put them in a ziplock bag and crush them into crumbs.

8. Turn the remaining cookies over and arrange them how you'd like them on a plate so they're upside down, then sprinkle the crumbs over them so that they rest in the gaps and sit on top.
   If you're transporting the cookies the crumbs will fall off, so either sprinkle the crumbs when the cookies are where they need to be, or mix up some buttercream and try to match the colour of the cookies as closely as possible, spread it over the bottom of the cookies very finely, like butter over toast, then sprinkle the crumbs and it will set with the crumbs in place.