Royal Icing Sugar Cookies

Royal icing is pretty much magic in the kitchen! I never knew all of the fun designs and colors you could create to transform simple sugar cookies into wonderful little works of art. Below is the royal icing recipe I’ve come to love and the semi-homemade sugar cookie recipe I use as a canvas.

Like many of my favorite recipes, this is one that you can use at any time of year to celebrate any occasion.

    

Royal Icing:

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons 8 oz. Meringue Powder
• 4 cups (about 1 lb.) Confectioners’ Sugar
• 5 tablespoons Warm Water
• Food Coloring

Instructions:

Add the meringue powder (found in the baking aisle of A.C. Moore), confectioners’ sugar, and water in a stainless steel mixing bowl.

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

Add in your food coloring (optional) as you are beating the ingredients to make sure it is incorporated throughout the icing.

Adjust the consistency as needed by adding more water to thin your icing.

Sugar Cookies:

Ingredients:

1 (1 lb.) Package of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix

3 Tablespoons of All-Purpose Flour

1 Stick (1/2 cup) of Unsalted Butter

1 Egg

Instructions:

Follow the directions on the back of the cookie mix for “Cutout Cookies” also included below:

Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (or 350 degrees Fahrenheit for dark or nonstick cookie sheets).

Stir flour into dry cookie mix in a medium bowl.

Add melted butter and egg into dry ingredients and stir until a soft dough forms.

Roll dough on floured surface until 1/4″ thick. Cut with 2 inch cookie cutter.

Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 5-7 minutes or until the edges are a light, golden brown color.

Cool 2 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet and cool completely before decorating.

**Decorating Tips**

Set aside some white icing and then use your food coloring to mix up 2-3 different colors.

Depending on what designs you want to create, thin out your colored icing with a little bit more water.

Pick a cooled cookie, use a butter knife to coat the entire cookie in white icing, and then use spoons, tooth picks, and piping bags to add colors to create polka dots, stripes, and a variety of designs.