Pumpkin Pie Shaped Cookies (Royal Icing)

By now you know I'm now totally obsessed with royal icing for cookies. I try to always make something for the boys to take to school for each holiday. I found these really cute Pumpkin Pie cookies on My Cupcake Addiction's Instagram. I gave it a whirl and think they turned out very cute!

 

What you Need:

Sugar Cookies cut into leaves and acorn
Triangle Cookie Cutter or Pie Shaped Cookie Cutter

Royal Icing in orange (I used Terracotta) and Ivory (recipe below)

AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring Terracotta and Ivory (to dye Icing - This is my fav brand)

Food Marker - Black and Pink

I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method 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.

After the pie slice cookies were dry I added the pie crust top. I used a Ivory color that turned out a little browner than I wanted. I added the tops for the pie crust. I waited for everything to dry. I then added the face on the cookie. I added the rosy cheeks with a hot pink edible pen. I then added the mouth, eye and eyebrows using a black edible pen.

As you can see I made a Army size batch of cookies. The boys will take some to school for their friends and teachers. I also wanted to give some to my amazing Dance instructors that help me on my fitness journey.

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.