Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

12 Days of (Christmas) Cookies

Day 4

Sugar Cookies with Icing

I love sugar cookies -- who doesn't?! My daughter and I enjoy decorating these every year around the holidays. I have a lot of room for improvement on the decorating aspect but I'm getting better at it each time! The icing recipe is really tasty and simple. If you want to outline the cookies, make the icing thicker by adding less milk.

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled program to say... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! We threw a little surprise birthday party for her last night and had a great time with many laughs and much love. She is on the Atkins' diet, so I threw together an Atkins'-friendly cake and she loved it.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c butter
• 2 c white sugar
  
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 4 tsp pure vanilla extract
  
• 2 tsp pure almond extract
• 4 c all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
  

Icing

• 1 c confectioners' sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
  
• 1 drop lemon juice
  
• 1 tbsp light corn syrup
• Food color gels
  

Directions:

• Cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.
  
• Add in the eggs and yolks one at a time and add the vanilla and almond extract.
  
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda.
  
• Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, until well combined.
  
• Wrap the dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  
• Roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness over a floured surface. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Place the cookies on greased baking sheets.
  
• Bake for 6-8 minutes, until the bottoms begin to lightly brown.
  
• Allow to cool completely.
  
• In the meantime, make the icing. Combine all of the icing ingredients in a bowl and add food coloring, to desired color.
  
• Decorate and enjoy!

My daughter asked me to make her an "M" cookie for Madelyn in red. This is the best I could come up with lol.