Easter Sugar Cookies Recipe with Royal Icing for Perfect Designs

🧂 Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter

  softened
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour

  sifted
• 1 lb confectioners sugar
• 3 tbsp meringue powder
• 6 tbsp warm water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

  optional
• Squeeze gel color, gold, pink, green, blue, violet
• Easter sprinkles

Instructions

• 1 First, measure out all of the cookie ingredients.
• 2 Then, in a medium-size mixing bowl, combine the sifted flour and salt together.
• 3 Next, in the large bowl of a stand mixer, beat the room temperature butter and
  sugar together until light, pale, and smooth.
  
  You can opt for a hand mixer if you don’t have a stand mixer.
• 4 Add the egg and vanilla extract into the butter mixture and beat again.
• 5 Then, add the dry ingredients ⅓ at a time into the stand mixer bowl, mixing well
  between each addition.
  
  When the dough gets stiff, finish kneading it with wet hands.
• 6 Lay out some plastic wrap on a flat surface. Scoop the cookie dough into two
  separate sections.
• 7 Next, wrap each dough portion while flattening it with your hands. Let the
  wrapped dough chill in the fridge for 3 hours before rolling it out.
• 8 After chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F. On a lightly-floured surface, use the
  rolling pin to flatten the chilled cookie dough out until it is ¼ inch thick.
• 9 Then, use the Easter cookie cutters to cut the shapes out of the cookie dough.
  Transfer the cookie cut-outs to a cookie sheet lined with a silicone liner.
• 10 Before baking, let the baking sheet of cookie cut-outs chill in the fridge for
  5-10 minutes.
  
  This is so the cookies will keep their form and not spread out while baking.
• 11 Bake the sugar cookies for about 8-10 minutes.
• 12 Let the cookies cool slightly on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a tiered
  wire rack to let them cool completely.
• 13 First, in a large bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder.
• 14 Then, add the water one spoon at a time, mixing between additions. Add the
  vanilla extract. Mix all the ingredients on low speed for about 5-7 minutes, or
  until the mixture is shiny.
• 15 Separate the icing into several bowls, one bowl for each icing color you want to
  make. Then mix in a drop or two of the squeeze gel colors in each bowl until you
  get the desired colors.
  
  For each color icing you need 2 different consistencies. A thicker consistency
  for borders and edges, and a thinner one for flooding or filling in.
  
  When you get each colored icing to the right thicker consistency, transfer ¼ – ½
  of it into a piping bag and tie it off.
  
  Use the remaining icing to make a thinner consistency by adding a little more
  water into the mixture.
• 16 Once the icing consistencies are ready, transfer each one into a separate piping
  bag and tie them off.
• 17 First, cut the tips of the icing bags to use them for decorating.
  
  For piping bags with the thicker icing, cut off a very thin tip of the bag,
  about ⅛ of an inch.
  
  For the bags with thinner icing, cut 1/16 of an inch. If this opening is too
  small you can always cut a little more off of the bag.
  
  I like to do a little test squeeze to make sure the icing comes out the way I
  want it to before cutting any more from the piping bag, just to make sure.
• 18 Then, start decorating the sugar cookies by outlining the cookie shapes with the
  thicker icing.
• 19 Next, use the thinner icings to fill in the outlines.
  
  Use the needle modeling tool to pop any icing air bubbles, to spread the icing,
  and to help shape the details.
• 20 After decorating the sugar cookies, use a craft heat gun to blow on them for
  just a few seconds, about 10 inches away from the cookies, to create a thin
  crust on the icing.
  
  This step is so that the flooded icing does not cave in on itself.
• 21 Finally, I like to add Easter sprinkles and finish my sugar cookies by letting
  them air dry in a cool place for 2 days before they’re ready for packaging and
  storing.

Nutrition Info