Shamrock Cookies Made (Royal Icing)

I'm trying to be on the ahead side this time and not be a crazy woman running around the night before. I wanted to make treats for the boys to take to school, PLUS to share with the girls in my dance class to share my new cookie business. I have now successfully mailed to MA and TN, taking orders now if you would like some! Check me out on Facebook SweetPea Cookie Therapy (my nickname from my daddy). 

I found these super cute Shamrocks on Tastes of Lizzy T, she did really cute design using regular frosting. I took this idea and ran with my new royal icing skills. I think they turned out so flipping cute and can't wait to promote my business with them!

 

What you Need:
1 Shamrock Cookie Cutter
Royal Icing - Green (see recipe below)
Candy Eyes
Heart Decorations (Red and Pink)
Black Edible Pen

I used the dipping method with my royal icing. This speeds 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). BEFORE the cookies dry, add the candy eyes and if you want to make a boy add bowtie and girl hear bow. AFTER the cookies dry you add the details. I used a edible pen in black to add the mouths and some eyelashes for the girls.

Click HERE to see who I link with.

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.