Thursday, March 27, 2014

Easter Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Hey Hey Happy Thursday! Hope you all are having a wonderful week so far. Ok, usually on the ol blog here I show the recipes I try and succeed at. There are many that fail behind the scenes that I never end up writing about because...well they failed. Why would anyone want to see a recipe that doesn't work, right? Well today I'm going to share with you a recipe that failed in the looks department, but totally succeeds in the flavor department, which I feel is more important :)

This was my second attempt at decorating cookies and making royal icing. The first time I tried, the icing never really fully dried and it wasn't that shiny pretty icing I see all the time on the cookies at the store. So I decided to try a different recipe. Since I'm still very new at using this kind of icing, I knew I wasn't going to be perfect at it right away. I also knew I could still make a really good sugar cookie which would make up for bad decorating. That is why I'm going to share with you my super-tasty-yet-not-so-pretty Easter Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing.
As you can see I chose a cute flower, a little bunny and what is supposed to be an egg shaped cookie cutter. Personally I think they look more like circles, but hey, they taste good...so yeah.
I made five different colors of icing. And I know the main reason these didn't come out perfect was because of my patience...you see, I don't have any. Ask my husband, he'll agree. I rushed through the icing part because I thought it was going to be easy. By all means this isn't hard, I just needed to wait until my outlines dried. Obviously I didn't do that every time.
Ok so maybe I'm not ready to be a fancy perfect cookie designer, but I'm getting there. Remember I'm a new cook, so things like this are still bound to happen. I'm just happy you let me share with you all me hits and misses. You guys rock!

Ingredients:
For Cookies:
3 Cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Cup unsalted butter, softened
1 Cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

For icing:
2 Cups powdered (confectioners) sugar
4 tsp milk
4 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
Different food coloring

Directions:
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In your mixer combine the butter and sugar until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.

Slowly add in the dry ingredients and beat until you have a smooth dough. Split the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with silpats or wax paper.

Take one batch of dough out and roll onto a lightly floured surface. Keep rolling dough around on the flour until it's no longer sticky. Roll out to about a 1/4 inch and cut out your cookies. Do the same for the other batch of dough.

Place the cutouts on your baking sheet and cook for about 8-10  minutes. Remove and let cool on the sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack. 

While the cookies cool, beat the powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Add in the corn syrup and vanilla extract and stir until fully combined. 

Set out as many bowls as colors you are wanting to use. So if you have five colors, set out five bowls.

Add an equal amount of icing into each bowl. Drop in as many drops of food coloring as you want, stirring after each drop, until you reach your desired color. 

Pour icing into your decorating bottles, or plastic bags. Start by outlining your cookies with the icing color you want to use. Let the outline dry (this is what I failed to do).

Once dried, fill in the outline with whatever icing color you choose. Let that layer dry for about an hour and add more decorations to that, or leave as it is and enjoy!


Are you a cookie decorating pro or a total novice like me? Please feel free to share your icing decorating tips or any royal icing recipes you love! Can't wait to hear them!

Need a mixer? This is mine!

KitchenAid 5 Quart Mixer

Need baking sheets? These are great!

Baking Sheets

This is the same silpat I use every time I bake!

Non-Stick Silpat Baking Mat 

Got decorating bottles? I use these!

Betty Crocker Decorating Kit

Thanks for stopping by!

**I linked up to the homeacre hopbloom designs, all things thursday, inspire me wednesday, whats cookin wednesdaywicked awesome wednesdayflusters creative mustertutorial tuesdayshow me what ya gotcreate link inspiretitus 2 tuesdaytasty tuesdayturn it up tuesdaythe scoopnifty thrifty tuesdaybetween naps on the porchmake it pretty mondaymeal planning mondaybest of the weekendfrom the farmanything blue fridayweekend bloggy readingcreativity unleashedfreedom fridayskitchen fun and crafty fridayfoodie fridayfriday link party, thursday style

***recipe adapted from here

25 comments:

  1. I don'y have any patience for this kind of thing either, that's what sprinkles are for :)

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  2. I could never get this kind of icing to turn out either! They look so cute and I love the colors!

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  3. Such beautiful decorating... thanks for bringing these cookies to foodie friday.

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  4. These look so cute!! Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Stopping by from the Tell Me About It Tuesday link-up! These cookies are so cute!

    Danielle at Framed Frosting

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  6. Your cookies look amazing.
    Debi @ Adorned From Above

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  7. These cookies are beautiful! My kids would love them. :) Pinned!

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  8. These cookies are too cute! Thanks for sharing this with Hump Day Happenings!

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  9. I love these cookies! They are too cute! I'm not sure how they should look, but my son and I would love them!

    Thanks so much for sharing on Turn It Up Tuesday! We love having you! :)

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  10. These look delicious! Definitely going to make this for my kiddos, they will be so excited to eat some "pretty" Easter cookies. Following along from last Friday's blog hop! You can find me at www.fitbodyfirst.com
    Cheers,
    Megan

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  11. I think your cookies turned out pretty! You just colored outside the lines a little bit : ) Thanks for sharing on Hump Day Happenings!

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  12. These came out so pretty and they seem so easy to make! I just wanted to let you know that I am linking to this post on 4/2 at Simply Creative Living if you don't mind.

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  13. The first time I made Royal Icing I didn't add enough sugar. It seemed okay, but was just a little too runny. Tasted FAB though so I didn't complain. I followed a guy on YouTube...Steve's Kitchen Royal Icing Quick and Easy. Your cookies look great, by the way. I know your family appreciated them.

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  14. Thanks for sharing on From the Farm! This is one our featured posts this week! Be sure to stop by and your badge :)

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  15. Hi stopping by from the ducks 'n a row linky. Your cookies look great! You're right about the patience thing too, I'm exactly the same ;) but patient or not they all taste the same...yummy!! ;)

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  16. These are adorable! Thanks for linking with Inspire Me Wednesday

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  17. these cookies look great. I have always wanted to make royal icing but have never tried it. Thanks for the recipe. Thanks for linking up at Tell Me About It Tuesday. We hope you hop over and share with us again next week.

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  18. Your Cookies look so pretty with the lovely pastel colors. Thank you so much for sharing this special recipe with Full Plate Thursday and have a fantastic week!
    Miz Helen

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  19. Thank you for sharing this recipe on Meal Planning Monday Recipe Link-Up. :) Your Easter cookies look delicious, I love iced sugar cookies! I hope you stop by and join us again this week! http://www.aprilshomemaking.com/2014/04/meal-planning-monday-recipe-link-up-5.html

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  20. Thank you for linking up to Tasty Tuesdays last week. As one of the co-hosts, I will be featuring your recipe on Tasty Tuesdays tomorrow on my site, Detours in Life. Congrats! Please stop by and grab a feature button when you get a chance.

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  21. These are so cute! My daughter loves baking. I bet she would love to try these! Thank you for linking up to Tell Me About It Tuesday on Woman of Many Roles!

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  22. I was you were featured at Tasty Tuesday, just stopping by to say hi and Congrats!
    Tiffany

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