DIY Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

I used our family Sugar cookie recipe for these cookies, also known as Christmas Cookies in our house. I have a recipe box my mother put together for me when I moved out to go to college. I still use this recipe box to this day!

We don’t cook with recipes often in our house. I grew up cooking next to my mother who eyeballed everything and “tweeks” every recipe she ever made.

Below you will the see how the family recipe word for word:

Sugar Cookie Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups of flour

Chill dough

Cook them around 350 degrees, grease anyway good luck..

This is literally all the recipe says…This is why I never liked baking! Nothing would ever come out right because the recipe would be so vague.

So, Here’s what you need to know that will result in the perfect cookies!

Directions:

Cream your butter and sugar together in a stand mixer until light and fluffy

Add your eggs and vanilla until well incorporated

Add salt, baking powder, and flour.

Chill dough for a least an hour, I chill mine over night.

Roll the dough out to be at least a 1/4″ thick and cut out cookies

Place Cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and greased with butter

Put cookie sheet with cookies on it into the freezer for about 15 minutes before baking

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. The cookies are done once they are start to get golden around the edges

Allow to cool completely before you start icing

I waited over night

I made my royal icing the next morning

Royal Icing Recipe:

• 1/4 cup of meringue powder
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1lb bag of powdered sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract

Direction:

Add the meringue powder and water and beat until well mixed

Add powdered sugar one cup at a time to prevent the sugar from going everywhere

Beat well to ensure the icing is smooth

Add vanilla

The icing will dry very fast or will get skin on the surface if you don’t cover the bowl with plastic wrap or an airtight lid.

As soon as it’s mixed separate the icing into several bowls. One bowl for each color.

Once the color is mixed, scoop the icing into plastic wrap and roll it into a log. Twist both ends of the plastic wrap to secure it and to keep it airtight.

Once you are ready to pipe, just plop the plastic wrap log inside your piping bag and you’re ready to go!

When you have a design with detail, you need to take a second before you start to plan the order in which you are going to pipe.

I used an edible marker to help map out my sections.

I started with the white centers of the ears and the space between the front legs. I did this step on all of the cookies. This will make the process go a little faster and help give the royal icing time to set up before you move onto the next section.

Next I added the border around the ears and the front legs

Next was the head, leaving a space for the trunk….which looks a little inappropriate…. it made me giggle.

Fill in the trunks

Start adding your details

Tisha’s Tip– I didn’t have a leaf tip small enough for the elephant’s flower crown, I used this DIY trick and it worked beautifully. Cut tip of your plastic piping back, just enough to make a little hole. Then cut a small slit like the photo above. That’s it! Instant leaves, woop!

I WAS SO NERVOUS AND INTIMIDATED TO MAKE THESE!!!! They aren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I was proud of how them came out for my first try. I am excited to make them again to learn and improve, Good luck!