Here is a Happy Valentines Day bonus!! I am very creative and I was inspired to learn how to decorate cookies with Run Sugar which is flowable Royal Icing. When my kids were younger I put three cookies into a small bag and that was their Valentine for all their classmates. I used three different sizes of heart cookie cutters, one with a fluted edge and the other two with straight edges. I mixed three different colors of pink and used them alongside white icing.
Have fun and play with the way you decorate them. Swirls, stripes and dots are all fun.
Sugar Cookie Recipe
1 cup butter (I use unsalted butter at room temperature)
2 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (use the best vanilla you can afford)
3 cups flour
1. Cream butter and cream cheese together, add egg and vanilla. Mix until creamy.
2. Slow the speed of the mixer and add in the flour. Mix in the flour and scrape down the bowl to make the butter is all mixed in evenly.
3. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least a few hours (overnight is easy).
4. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface or use parchment paper. Cut the cookie shape you desire. Mix together the cuttings and re-roll and cut.
5. Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes (until the edges are very lightly browned).
6. Cool completely before decorating. These cookies can be baked a few days before you are ready to decorate them. The cookies are not too sweet because they will be iced with the Run Sugar Icing.
Run Sugar Icing (Royal Icing)
8 cups powdered sugar
4 tbsp meringue powder (can be purchased at cooking specialty stores or online)
1 tbsp gum arabic (can be purchased at cooking specialty stores or online)
½ tsp cream of tartar
2/3 cups cool water (you may need to add more water to get the right consistency)
Food color (I use food coloring gel – Country Kitchen SweetArt is a great online store for everything cakes, cookies, and decorating)
1. In a stand-mixer, combine water, meringue powder and cream of tartar and beat until stiff peaks form.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the powdered sugar and gum Arabic.
3. Add to meringue and beat on medium speed until it is mixed well.
4. Pour the royal icing into smaller containers to color each on separately.
5. There is an art to getting the right consistency. You want it to flow but not run off the cookies. Add some color and mix until it is the desired color. Add water to get the icing to run. The icing should be thin enough to smooth out after it in dropped onto a surface in about 10 seconds. If it is flat too quickly it is too thin. If it is still bumpy add a bit more water.
Put colored icing into a piping bag with a narrow tip and run the icing around the edge of a cookie and then fill in the center with the icing.
Let it sit and dry. If you want to decorate like the ones I did, let the first layer of icing dry until it is crusty and you next layer won’t melt into the first layer.
If you want your colors to mix into each other, then put your second color on right away and it will flow into the other icing.
Let your cookies dry overnight before you pack them up to give away to your favorite valentines.
Recent Comments