recipe: valentine's Day sugar cookies & royal icing

yum! sugar cookies and icing, there is nothing better to eat for valentines day :) after a long week of bronchitis i was finally starting to feel better and wanted to make my co-workers valentines cookies. i also have been wanting to try royal icing. i haven't used a royal icing recipe before; therefore, this was going to be a new experiment for me. 

i used my mother-in-law's sugar cookie recipe and just like my aunt carri's, this is another great sugar cookie recipe. for the royal icing, i watched a few videos and read some information online about how to use royal icing and how to apply different techniques. i found that royal icing is actually tough to use and work with. because of the "secret" ingredient (meringue powder), this allows the icing to become tough and thick to work with. see the recipe below to see how to make royal icing and also for the sugar cookie recipe!

royal icing ingredients:

-3 level tablespoons of meringue powder

-4 cups of confectioners sugar 

-6 tablespoons of water 

details:

-mix all of the ingredients together for 7-12 minutes until icing forms in peaks (this will make about 3 cups)

-i mixed this by hand but you can also mix in your mixer as well

-add food coloring for the color of your choice and mix well

-to make the icing smoother just add more water to get it to the consistency that you want

sugar cookie ingredients:

-1 cup of butter (2 sticks)

-1 cup of sugar

-1 large egg

-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

-2 teaspoons of baking powder 

-2 3/4 cups of all purpose flour

details:

-preheat your oven to 350 degrees 

-in a large bowl with mixer at medium speed beat the butter and sugar until smooth

-beat in the egg and vanilla

-next, add baking powder and mix well

-then, add your flour and mix well

-the dough will be very stiff and be sure to not chill the dough

-divide the dough into two balls

-on a floured surface, with a rolling pin, roll each ball approximately 1/4 inch thick

-dip your cookie cutters in flour before each use

-bake the cookies on the top rack of the oven and bake them for exactly 8 minutes on a timer 

-cool before decorating the cookies with your royal icing 

-this recipe will make about 3 dozen cookies

-decorate and serve with a smile :)

i hope you all have a wonderful valentines day and enjoy your time with your special loved ones. have a great week!

thank you for stopping by :)