It feels like a long time since I’d actually written a Food and Fandom post, but that’s because I’ve gotten lazy and it’s really hard to top my previous series of Grishaverse foods. That said, I’ve been bingeing anime all summer, and with all the Food Wars episodes I’ve blitzed through, I’m bound to be inspired again to make things. Or, you know, try to make things out of books (I’ve highlighted a few already, just haven’t gotten to investing in ingredients).
tl;dr
(click on the sugar cookie recipe here)
The Assassination Classroom anime has wound its way into my heart all of last school year. I mean, how could it not? Because if every teacher was like Koro-sensei (minus the “I am a monster of destruction” part…) a lot of good would probably come out in the world. I loved the anime, enough that I even used some of the AC-related stuff I had in my own classroom (as word problems, mood posters, etc.). A friend even gave me some lovely “Korochets” (I’m totally taking credit for that word) as presents and it’s been a staple in my classroom as emotional supports for my super-anxious crows.
So naturally, I made Koro-sensei cookies to match!
The story of Assassination Classroom follows the perspective of Nagisa, who is one of the classroom students in Class-E, the lowest ranked class in Kunugigaoka Junior High School. There’s not much expectation in Class-E, and they’re constantly bullied and humiliated because of their low grades, even so far as placed in a classroom setting far away from the school’s main campus. In comes a strange, octopus-looking teacher, and the entire dynamic of Class-E changes: now, in order to survive to the next school year, the entire class will have to find a way to assassinate their head teacher.
It’s a bit macabre when I put it that way, but there are so many themes in the anime that go beyond “let’s turn a bunch of kids into murdering psychopaths” (though that does get a bit dubious). Koro-sensei (named by the kids) is wonderful at how he affects learning in his students. He’s not a perfect example of teaching, but very close to something I would certainly want to aspire to.
Anyway. Enough about the anime. Let’s talk about the cookies!
I got a little ambitious and decided on four designs, but in the end scrapped the last one because I am NOT a professional cookie decorator and oh gawds above, I am tremendously envious of those who are because how the hell do you guys manage to decorate them so delicately?! Maybe I’m just super heavy-handed. I had to experiment on my ugly cookies in order to figure out if the best route to draw the outline of the eyes and mouth would be edible marker or painting.
I chose the painting, because, as I said, I’m pretty heavy-handed with those markers. I managed to puncture a few and decided a lighter touch is possible with brush and food coloring. (So I got lucky, because I’d completely forgotten I had a mug with my stash of food paint brushes in the back of my cabinets. Thankfully, I found the mug, because otherwise I would have been left with little options!)
I’ve still got a lot of practice to go to nail icing cookies, but I don’t often make sugar cookies to put in the practice. That said, I must say I’ve come a long way from my atrocious attempts at icing those Mistborn/Demon Cycle/Old Kingdom cookies so long ago.
The icing recipe I got from my friend, but honestly, it’s just a mixture of powdered/confectionary sugar, water, and meringue powder. I don’t like using raw egg, so I felt this was the best way to go.
Aren’t they cute, though? It’s not lost on me that I used the same three designs as my friend’s Korochets. Those were the easiest to make!
My poor kitchen island was practically an explosion of cookies, though. Thankfully I halved the sugar cookie recipe, otherwise I’d have some 60+ cookies to ice and decorate, and I already wanted to die dramatically after mucking up the first few.
Now I have the “Question” song stuck in my head. Again.
Story and Somnomancy 