Valentine’s Day is coming soon.
I think one of the best ways to express your love is baking these sugar cookies and decorating them with royal icing. Royal icing is good for decorating cookies with because it has good hardness to it. However, personally, I’m not a big fan of royal icing because I don’t like raw egg whites in my icing. =]

I’m trying to find an alternative icing which is easy to work with and tastes good, but for now, I use royal icing to decorate my sugar cookies. I made my icing by combining meringue powder + lemon juice + powdered sugar until I got the consistency that I needed, which is stiff but soft. So, you’ll need to play with the ratios until you’re happy with the icing.

INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENT

Equipment

Rolling pin
Cookie cutters
Piping bag & Decorating tips

Ingredients for Sugar Cookie Dough – Makes 3 dozen (2 1/2 inch) cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Ingredients for Royal Icing

1 tablespoon meringue powder
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice, plus extra

HOW TO MAKE

Making Sugar Cookie Dough: Sorry, I forgot to take pictures! =(

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color.
3. Add egg and milk and beat to combine.
4. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl.
5. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Rolling & Cutting Dough: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

1. Sprinkle surface (I usually use a wooden cutting board.) with powdered sugar and top of the dough, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick.
2. Cut into desired shape (Of course, heart for Valentine’s Day) by using cookie cutters.
3. Grease your baking sheet with butter or place parchment paper on a baking sheet, and
place cookies. Bake about 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn light brown around the edges.
4. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes and then move to a cooling rack.

Decorating Cookies

5. Mix all the ingredients for royal icing by using a small whisk. Then, pipe a outer line with thick royal icing.
6. Then, add more water or lemon juice to royal icing to adjust its consistency and fill out the line.

ALEXA’S TIPS

1. If you are using butter to grease baking sheet, make sure that you really grease it well. There were parts that was not greased well, and cookies got ugly when I tried to take them off.
2. I have found three different royal icing recipes that use water, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Which one is the best? I think it just depends on your preference!
3. When you decorate cookies, use the smallest tip (usually #1 or #2). This might seem too small, but it is the right size to write letters and draw as you want.

You can either fill out the top of cookies with royal icing, draw lines and heart, or write a note.

TASTE REVIEW

I didn’t like the icing – I think it’s just me, don’t like royal icing.
However, everyone loved these cookies!
My friends loved the lemon taste of icing although I thought there was too much lemon juice in it.

Sprinkling decorating sugar before the icing gets hard gives another look.

Show your love with your homemade cookies!

Happy Valentine’s Day!