Movember makes me happy. Unsurprisingly, it’s not the ridiculous patches of hair that spring up (with varying degrees of success) on the men in my life that I love.
I love that it is part of the solution to de-stigmatising men’s health problems. That sounds a little pompous, but hear me out.
The men in my family are stoic, old-fashioned creatures who hate the idea of going to the doctor until there’s a real problem (I.e. When the problem is usually worse).
Preventative doesn’t exist in their vocabulary.
And, rather unluckily, mental health is a prevalent problem in my genes. Depression, specifically.
Amidst a glut of other hereditary issues, I too am at risk of mental health issues. Genes can be such jerks.
I’ve seen the pernicious ways that depression sneaks into a person’s life. Without warning it can worm it’s way into your consciousness and set to work dismantling all the hard work you’ve done building yourself into a happy, functioning human. It’s destructive, unforgiving, non-discriminatory. It can swallow you up.
So, Movember makes me happy, because it is the exact opposite; it is open, silly, it fosters communities.
When men can wear their health on their sleeve as proudly as they wear ridiculous facial hair on their head, a small part of me will rejoice.
If you’d like to donate to Movember, you can do so Movember.
If you want to have a chat about your mental health, check out Lifeline.
Orange biscuits
Makes 24 moustaches
- 170g butter
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoons vanilla (I used vanilla bean paste)
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel
- 1 1/2 cups plain flour
- 1 tsp water
Topping
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 600g ready-made fondant
- Poppy seeds/ chocolate sprinkles
- Water, for brushing
Beat together butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add in your vanilla and egg, followed by the orange peel. Add in your plain flour and the water to help things mix in nicely. Don’t be tempted to add in any more water, you’ll end up with dough that it too wet.
Scoop into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and pop in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and set to one side.
Take your dough out of the fridge, then dust your worktop and rolling pin down with a little flour. Roll your dough out to 1/2cm thickness, then cut your biscuits out and put them on your tray. This next step is the secret trick to getting your sugar cookies to retain their shape – pop your tray in the freezer for 10 minutes to help the butter chill.
Preheat your oven to 180.
Remove your biscuits from the oven and out them straight in your preheated oven for 12-14 minutes, until slightly golden.
Remove from the oven and put them on a cooling rack. While the biscuits cool, mix your icing sugar and orange juice together to get a nice paste – this is going to be the “glue” for your biscuits and fondant. Set the glue to one side. Dust your worktop with extra icing sugar and roll out the fondant to about 1/2cm, the same as your biscuits – you can make it thinner if you like, fondant thickness is a bit of a personal preference! Cut out the same number of moustaches as you have biscuits.
When the biscuits are completely cooled, grab a spoon and dip the back of it in the “glue”, spread it thinly across the biscuit without going all the way to the edges and pop a fondant moustache on top. Gently press it down to make it stick nicely, then return to the cooling rack to set properly. Repeat until all of the moustaches are paired up.
Pour your poppy seeds and/or sprinkles onto a wide, shallow plate and grab a pastry brush and a glass of water.
To get the moustaches covered in poppy seeds/sprinkles, simply brush a small amount of water over the fondant, then press the wet side into the plate full of poppy seeds/sprinkles and return to your cooling rack. Like so:
This recipe is fun for kids – with all the cutting and moustache smooshing that goes on, it’s definitely worth getting some helpers in!
These biscuits will be nicely set and ready for consumption after about ten minutes
Shout out to Baker’s Secret for sending me some products to trial! I used their medium cookie tray for this recipe and it was an absolute dream – it slotted right into my oven rungs! I’m really grateful to have been on the receiving end, and feel like there might be a little giveaway on the cards – keep your eyes peeled!
These are too cute!
Thanks Jade 😀
Gorgeous photography! I’m now a follower.
❤
helloscarlettblog.com
Hi Emory, I’m following you now too – your photography is lovely, your comment means so much 😀
Thanks for the follow. 🙂
I definitely agree with you about Movember! Yay you for spreading awareness 🙂 And these cookies look amazing. ❤
Aw thanks, gorgeous! It’s a topic close to my heart, so writing about it seemed really natural 🙂