Make it Yourself! Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

For one of the cookie bar offerings I decided to try making sugar cookies with the number 2 and the letter A written and decorated with royal icing.  Those special order decorated sugar cookies have always caught my eye but at $$$ per dozen, no thanks.

Basic items you need to get started:
off set spatula
#3 tip
#2 tip
decorating bags
saran wrap
decorating bottle (at least 2)
mixer
baking sheets
parchment paper or silpat mat
ameri color food dye
spray bottle
couplers
cookie cutter
measuring cups
large glass measuring cup
*there are a few more things you could purchase (I just chose not to) as suggested on sweet sugar belles shopping list which can be found here

So, here went nothing and as far as first tries go I have to say they turned out quite nicely!!  People even asked me where I got them and were surprised when I said I made them myself, well with the help of two of my girlfriends, which is always a good indicator you did a decent job.

In total, it took me 3 days, so you will need a bit of counter space for the cookies to be left out to day between steps.  Since they were done in stages, they ended up not being too time consuming and could be done during nap time.  Once you get the right consistency for the outline and flooding you will breeze right through it the second time around.


The recipes I used for the sugar cookies and royal icing were found on the website called sweet sugar belle.  She has great tutorials on how to make them and decorate them.  The pictures of her cookies look amazing!

The original recipe and instructions for the sugar cookie cut outs I did can be found here.  I made a double batch so the recipe I used was as follows:

2 c (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3 c confectioner's sugar
2 egg
6 tsp vanilla extract
5 c all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt


What I did:
In your mixer, mix together butter and sugar.  In separate bow which the eggs and vanilla together.  Then add the egg mixture into the mixer to combine with the butter mixture until creamy.
In separate bowl, combine flour baking powder and salt then add into mixer.
Mix together until combined.


On a floured cutting board, roll out dough and cut out cookies.  Dough should not be sticky.
Place cut out cookies onto silpat mat and bake at 400F for 8 mins but do not cook until brown.
Let cool then store in air tight container.  I ended up with about 3 and a half dozen cookies.

The recipe for the royal icing that I used can be found here.  I watched a few you tube videos to visualize the consistency but the best comparison I heard was the consistency of toothpaste.  Again, sweet sugar belle has a helpful breakdown of how to decorate sugar cookies with royal icing which can be found here.


Once I got the desired consistency I rolled up 2 white blobs of royal icing in saran wrap to set aside.  Tutorial for the saran wrap tube trick can be found here.  Then I scooped out some of the royal icing into in a small bowl and stirred in both blue and green ameri color food gel dye to make my teal color and wrapped that in a saran wrap tube and loaded it in a decorating bag with the #3 tip.  After that I scooped more royal icing into another small bowl to mix in black ameri color food gel dye and wrapped that in a saran wrap tube to set aside.

After that was completed, I scooped out royal icing into a large glass measuring cup and sprayed basically a whole bottle of water into the royal icing to thin it out to obtain flood consistency.  This video by Alison was helpful and can be found here.  Next I poured the flood icing into my decorating bottles.


I decorated day old sugar cookies as she suggested and didn't have any problems with running or dying of the colors.  Some of the flooded sugar cookies got sprinkles but the majority were left to dry for another day before getting decorated with piped teal and black icing.


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