First Attempt with Royal Icing-Halloween Sugar Cookies!

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     I’ve been busy making Halloween treat bags for my students. While I was making them I decided to make one for each of my three little cousins. After I made the treat bags I decided to go ahead and make them each a Halloween box to send in the mail. While Johnna and Peyton enjoy Halloween, Greggy takes after me and LOVES Halloween. I was excited to pick up little treats from Wal-Mart to include in the packages but wanted to send something homemade as well.
     Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of cookies decorated with royal icing. I’ve never used royal icing before but I was anxious to try it out. I decided to make the kids Halloween sugar cookies and decorate them with the royal icing. I had cookie cutters in the shapes of a black cat, a ghost, a pumpkin, and a gingerbread man. I know what you are thinking. Who makes a gingerbread man on Halloween? I knew that with icing I could make it look like a skeleton so I went with it.
     Sugar cookies are something I make often, so they were super easy to make. I had just picked up some icing dye in Halloween colors and was excited to use it. I made a batch of royal icing and divided it into 4 small bowls. I left one white and colored the others black, orange, and green.

     The icing was a little runny so I added more powdered sugar then was called for. I put half of each bowl of icing into zip top bags and piped it onto the cookies. I had so much fun doing it and the results were awesome! The icing hardened and looked great on the cookies. I hope my cousins enjoy the cookies as much as I enjoyed making them.

Simple Sugar Cookies

2 ½ c. flour
¼ t. salt
¾ c. butter at room temperature
¾ c. sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla

1. In a medium bowl mix together the flour and salt.

2. In another bowl beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Slowly add in the flour mixture.

3. Shape into a ball. Divide in half, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

4. Heat the over to 350 degrees. Roll out one dough half on a floured surface to around ¼” thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cuts. Reserve scraps and roll out dough again.

5. Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Royal Icing  (from Joy of Baking)

3-4 c. powdered sugar
2 egg whites
2 t. lemon juice (about half a lemon)
1 t. extract (almond, vanilla, etc.) optional
1. In a bowl beat egg whites until frothy. Add in the lemon juice and extract (if desired) and mix well. Slowly add in the powdered sugar until mixture is thick. Tint icing and put in a piping bag to ice cookies.

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