Festive Christmas Sweater Cookies (Royal Icing)

And one more Christmas cookie idea using royal icing would be Ugly Christmas Sweaters! WELL my sweater turned out super cute so I'm calling them Festive Sweaters. I saw this  fun design on Cake Boss's Website. From the picture I just took it and ran with it, and loved how they came out. I made these cookies for the boys classmates and for my dance fitness instructors. I made two sets of these sweaters, I forgot to take a picture of one by itself the first time. SOOOO ... the 2nd set was a different shade of green. You'll notice the individual photo is a bit more pea green then the photo collage below. No it's not your eyes it's two different colors ... LOL!

 

What you need:

Baked Cookies (My favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe)

Green, Red and White Royal Icing (see my favorite recipe below)

Green and Red AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring to tint Royal Icing
Christmas Ugly Sweater Cookie Cutter (Bought on Amazon)

I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about several 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, so you don't looses your cookie). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry!
 

MOST times I would let the top layer sit and harden before I add the details but this design you need the top coat wet. I then took a piping bags one with red and one with white royal icing. I found when I left green between each color it turned out better. I made 2 lines of red and two of white. I took a toothpick and did a swirl motion. I took a green piping bag to make a v neck for the sweater and the lines on the arms so it stood out a little more. Let the cookies dry and you have a special looking ornament.

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.