Cookies - Royal Icing

Every few years I forget that I am unartistic and uncoordinated.  I watch videos on icing cookies and I think, "I can do that. . ."

My student, Gina, made wonderful cookies for Halloween.  She shared one, but I ate it before I thought to photograph it. . . Perhaps that's good, since I have no proof of excellence!  But I was inspired to try my hand.

I used Gina's recipe:

Sugar Cookie Recipe

3 c flour

1 c sugar

1 1/4 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

2 sticks butter

1/2 t vanilla

1/2 t lemon extract

1 egg

2 oz cream cheese

mix, chill, roll, cut

350º, 12 minutes

It's Great!

I rolled out about four dozen cookies.

When they cooled, I made royal icing and colored some brown:

For the Royal Icing, I used meringue powder with water and powdered sugar, using the proportions on the meringue powder container.

The next day, I made blue and green frosting.  Handling the piping bag is a bit of a challenge, as you might guess from the pictures.  Also, it's a challenge getting the right consistency.

Next day brought the red icing - it looks kind of pink.  .  .  I am using concentrated color, and a little goes a long way.  Looks like I'm getting better at "flooding", but lines are still a challenge.

The following day I added the white.  I kept it thicker so that I could make "stars".  I also dusted some of the white with white or green sugar crystals.  I think the crystals may be useful for hiding mistakes.

Next is yellow. . .

And chartreuse

All done. . . 

I guess you don't need talent to have fun.

~ ~ ~

The beginnings of batch two:

Ain't we got fun. . . 

And now we're done:

And we had a good assortment to take to a "covered dish".

That was fun!