Dora The Explorer Star Cupcakes (Sugar Cookie Royal Icing Toppers) for Charity

The week of Christmas I was signed up for a cake delivery for a special 9 year old homeless girl in a shelter close to home. Many of you know I bake for a charity that brings birthday's to homeless kids in shelters around Washington. I know when we get close to the holiday's the volunteers go down so I always make sure I pick up any during this season. 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 found on Dora Explorer Stars on Sweet Sugar Belle that I felt would be perfect. I have NOT mastered the ability to do faces, so I skipped doing Dora herself and went for her stars. I must say I was pretty happy with how it turned out. NOTE to self for next time DON'T put so much frosting on that when you put on a big topper you can't close the lid on the cupcake holder .. lol. I have done Dora the Explorer Before using modeling chocolate.

 

I'm a bit obsessed with royal icing cookies right now. I've been using the cookies as the toppers for my cupcakes I make. It's like the best of all words a cupcake with tons of frosting and a cookie to eat also!! My youngest is obsessed with this technique, yup he's so my child all about the sugar (I have no clue where he would get this from ... as she whistles and looks away .... lol).

 

What you Need:

Star Cookie Cutter (I have a 4 set I used the 3rd Largest one)

Frosted Cupcakes

Royal Icing - Yellow, Green, Pink and Purple (see recipe below)

Candy Eyeballs (I use Hobby Lobby's)
Piping Bag of darker Royal Icing (for Mouth and Eyebrows) - Yellow, Green, Pink and Purple

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! BEFORE the icing starts to dry, add on your candy eyeballs. This way when the icing drys it will hold the eyes on. Nothing like an eyeball falling off if you lift the cookie up. You can add on with icing once dry, but I found this way there is no chance of fall off. Once dry you can add your details.

For the mouths and eyebrows, I took the royal icing I used for dipping and added some more color to make it darker. I added the mouths a crescent moon shape and the little lines above the eyes for the eyebrows.

 

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.

Gingerbread Men Sugar Cookies (Royal Icing)

Merry Christmas, hope you all had an amazing time with your family. 

I had to share one last cookie I made. I saw this  fun design on Gisela on Instagram. I have done gingerbread men before but this was a fun way to make using royal icing. I made these cookies for my dance fitness instructors.

 

What you need:

Baked Cookies (My favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe)

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

Brown and Red AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring to tint Royal Icing
Gingerbread Man 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!
 

Once the brown was dry I added the details. I took a piping bag with white icing and added the details on his legs, arms and face. I then took a piping bag with red icing to make the buttons.

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.

Baker Humor T-Shirt

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and enjoy time with your family! I'll be back on Monday with another cookie made for Christmas Gifts. In the meantime I had to share a funny T-Shirt I found on Facebook. Got to love the sponsored ads, they know you and pop up.

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.

Christmas Ornament Cookies (Royal Icing)

One more Christmas cookie idea using royal icing would be Christmas Ornaments! Now to find these cookie cutters was a bit of an ordeal. I thought I would find them at Hobby Lobby or Michael's but NO LUCK! So to Amazon I went to find the cookie cutters I wanted. I saw a fun swirl design on Sweetopia I took this idea and made a simple version that I could make a ton of cookies for. I made these cookies for the boys classmates and for my dance fitness instructors.

 

 

 

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 Ornament Cookie Cutters (Box set I used from 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 green royal icing. NOW my first one (picture below) I put the lines to close together. I found when I left white between each color it turned out better. I made 2 lines of red and one of green. This shape was smaller so I didn't do 2 of each color for the larger cookie you can. The second ornament I did the ball ornament and put the spacing needed in the picture below. I took a toothpick and did a swirl motion. 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.