Elephant Cookies for Charity (Birthday Dreams) ... Royal Icing Cookies

Another fun cupcake delivery for my favorite charity that brings birthday's to homeless kids in shelters around Washington State. If you ever have extra party supplies or toys please think of Birthday Dreams, we can all make a child's special day be just that special! 

I've made Elephant Cookies for a baby shower before. This time I got to make fun ones for a special one year old!

What you Need:
Elephant Cookie Cutter
Royal Icing - Grey and Pink (see recipe below)
Black Edible Pen
Decorating pearls
Pipping Bag (w/ grey and pink royal icing)

I first outlined the elephant and let that dry to create a barrier. I then filled in with grey and smoothed out to fill in the elephants, BEFORE that dried I added the toes. I used small pearls on the feet to be the toes. I waited for them to dry to add the other details. I took a bag of pink to make the ears. When those finished I started on the last details. I added a tail, mouth, Eyes and details for the trunk. Since these were part of a cake delivery, I used as the toppers on cupcakes.

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.