End of Summer Party ... Lobster Cookies (Royal Icing)

Another quick break from the Emoji party to show off a fun cookie I made for our End of the Summer Party this past weekend. I had this Lobster Cookie Cutter for watermelon lobsters at a previous summer party. I was trying to find fun cookies to make for our party and then I remembered this cookie cutter. I just LOVE how they turned out. NOW when they got to the party they were a little broken since my pre-teen decided to toss the box into the car! Yes I almost cried after several hours of work on these little guys!

What you Need:

Sugar Cookies cut into Lobsters (see my fav sugar cookie recipe below)

Royal Icing in Red & Black (recipe below)

AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring Red & Black (to dye Icing)

Pipping Bag

Tint your Royal Icing to the perfect shade of red. I use the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do this about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details. I like to do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to harden. I took a plastic piping bag and added the black royal icing and made the eyes.  I have found in the past making this a little thicker than your outlining consistency is best if not they run together and you get a cyclops (which kids think are cool but not the look I was going for). At first I went for just adding eyes, I tested with a few lines of red but wasn't sure. I let that dry and came back and liked it so I went and added that to rest of the lobsters.

Lobsters on the table

(with a few broken arms thanks to my son .. ugh)

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.