sugar cookie with royal icing recipe

Hello there, I know it's been forever since I posted anything. LiFe..ya know! Summer, my favorite season, is here! I love the long daylight hours, the warm temperatures (okay hot..), pool time, ice cream, fourth of July festivities/fireworks, and my birthday! I've been in a baking mood here the past month or so and since I have never made 4th of July sugar cookies I decided to give it a go! Over the last five years or so I've been enjoying making sugar cookies and decorating them with royal icing. I finally feel like I've found and tweaked a sugar cookie recipe to get it just the way I like it. Not in any way am I a professional, but my icing technique has definitely come a long way over the years. This recipe is great because the cookies hold their shape really well when baking and taste delicious (coming from me, a person who really could care less about sugar cookies! ha, I'm a chocolate chip girl). I have had several people ask me for the cookie and icing recipes that I use so I thought I'd share them here! Enjoy!

Sugar Cookie Recipe
2 cups of softened butter (salted or unsalted, I use whatever I have on hand)
1 1/2 cups of granulated white sugar
2 tsp good vanilla extract
1 tsp butter extract
4 large egg yolks
4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
Directions: Cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla and butter extracts and egg yolks and mix until just incorporated - do not overmix. Slowly add flour and mix until soft dough forms - again, do not overmix. Separate dough into 2 equal portioned sized balls and place each ball in between 2 large sheets of wax paper. Using rolling pin, while dough is between wax paper sheets, roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Leaving between wax paper sheets, transfer both rolled out portions of cookie dough to the refrigerator using a flat cookie sheet or large cutting board and leave in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes to chill. Once the dough is hard, remove from fridge and cut out cookie shapes with your cookie cutters and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. (I have had success tracing my cookie shapes and cutting with a knife as well) After cookies are cut out, place baking sheet back in the fridge and chill about 10 more minutes. Form dough scraps back into a ball, roll out, refrigerate, and repeat the process until all dough is used. Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F for 10-13 minutes. Let cookies sit on the sheet until semi-cool, then transfer to counter or cooling rack. For soft, chewy cookies do not let the edges brown in the oven. Best to take them out before they get to that point, they will continue to cook for a bit sitting on the hot cookie sheet.

Royal Icing Recipe
*this is just the recipe from the back of the Wilton Meringue Powder container*
*I usually double this recipe because I like to have lots of icing to work with*
3 TBSP Wilton Meringue Powder
4 cups of sifted (I don't actually sift,I just spoon into my measuring cup) confectioners' sugar (Powdered Sugar)
5 TBSP warm water
Directions: In a large bowl, beat all ingredients at medium speed of stand mixer until icing forms peaks and loses its sheen 7-10 minutes. (will take longer if you're using a handheld mixer).
My method after mixing: After mixing I separate into small glass or metal (do not use plastic, any tiny bit of grease will ruin your royal icing) bowls in the number of icing colors I'm going to make. Cover bowls you're not working on at the moment with a damp paper towel to prevent icing from drying out. For piping consistency, slowly add water (about 1/4 tsp at a time) until the consistency is about that of toothpaste. Then add your coloring. I use Americolor Soft Gel Paste. For flood consistency add water until when you dribble some icing off of a spoon into the bowl the icing lines disappear in 6-8 seconds. If I am making piping and flood icing in the same color I start with the pipe consistency, separate some off into a decorating bag, then continue to water down until I reach the flood consistency.

Make these! Peppermint Meltaway Cookies

Hey you guys! 'Tis the season...for Christmas cookies! Today I'm sharing a recipe for these Peppermint Meltaway Cookies that I just made for a cookies and cocoa with Santa party our church had after our Christmas Candelight Service tonight. The cookies REALLY do kinda melt in your mouth and the peppermint is not overwhelming - since I know some people aren't a huge fan of that flavor. I found the recipe on Taste of Home's website and was leery to try it because of the mixed reviews - but mine turned out great with a few, minor modifications. I will definitely be making these again! Recipe after the break

coffee cake recipe

Coffee cake! I'm not sure where it gets it's name considering there is not any actual coffee in this particular recipe..probably because it pairs so well with a steaming cup of coffee! On Saturdays or Holiday mornings when we don't have anywhere to be and can lounge around the house I love to make a big breakfast! My brother shares my love for breakfast and whenever we get together I always make my coffee cake recipe. My husband loves this recipe too and he recently said that I only make it when my brother is visiting! Oops, ha ha! So now I'm trying to be more inclusive and make it for him too! This recipe is super sweet and not at all healthy...but it's okay to splurge every once in a while right?!

Pictured is a doubled recipe - that's why I'm using a 9x13 inch pan! Enjoy!!!

baby shower woodland cake

This weekend I made a woodland theme cake and cupcakes for a baby shower! My friend's nursery adventure/woodland theme is going to be so cute! I was really nervous to make this cake because I haven't ever made a big cake for a public gathering, but after scouring tons of pictures on Pinterest I finally settled on a design that I was pretty sure I could replicate! Since I haven't made fondant before, I knew that I didn't want to go that route even though there are tons of cute ideas that incorporate fondant! Because I don't know when I'll do a big baking job like this again I made sure to take lots of pics! :)

Cake details:

I used box cake mixes (cheating, I know!) but used Rachel Ray's tips for making box cakes better! Sub out the vegetable oil for melted butter. In chocolate cakes use hot water and add 2 extra egg yolks. For white cakes sub out the water for milk and use egg whites - my box mix already instructed me to only use egg whites. Normally if you use egg whites instead of a whole egg you would need to incorporate some extra fat into the recipe to replace the fat that's in the yolk. 

Frosting details:

I made butter cream frosting and tinted it brown for the outsides and top of the cakes, the frosting between the layers I just left white (used less colorant that way!). THIS recipe for butter cream is my favorite! I have made it with cream cheese and without! It pipes perfectly onto cupcakes as well. To make the rings I tinted the frosting three shades of brown and piped it directly on the top of cakes and stuck it back in the fridge to chill. After the frosting was cold I was able to shave off a little bit of the top of the frosting to make the rings look more smooth. The tree bark was really easy to make. After melting candy melts you spread the melted chocolate onto parchment paper and then place another piece of parchment paper on top and smooth it all out. Then roll up the parchment paper layers and put it in the fridge to cool. After the chocolate has hardened, when the parchment paper is unrolled the chocolate will crack and form what looks like tree bark! Sugar Hero blog has a great tutorial! 

Decoration details:

The 'Welcome Baby' banner was made out of scrapbook paper, letter stickers, and basic hemp twine that I tied onto actual tree branches. (I first cleaned and cut off the outer layer of bark since I would be sticking it into the cake) I made the little toadstool mushrooms out of mini mushrooms and icing dotted cherry sours candies that I cut the bottoms off of (I definitely ate all the halves I cut off..ha ha!) It was perfect timing that the shower took place in December because I was able to use mini Christmas trees and little animal figurines from the holiday decor section at Joann's! The wooden arrows are also from Joann's. The moss is crushed up Graham crackers with green food coloring! So easy!

over the weekend

Mmm...pumpkin spice cookies. This was my first time making this type of cookie but I'll definitely be making them again! It seemed like the perfect sweet treat to make for this time of the year! This weekend was Harding University's homecoming and I didn't even go to any of the festivities (the football game, homecoming musical, etc)...it's kind of sad really...especially since it's my first year as an alumnae and since we still live so close! But, I was busy working and I also had the privilege of going to a friend's wedding in beautiful Eureka Springs, AR. My husband's family was up for a visit with us from Atlanta, GA and since my husband had already committed to spending Saturday with his parents, I ventured off to historic Eureka Springs by myself. It was a beautiful drive, full of rich autumn colors and it's times like these that really put me in awe of God's handiwork! I forgot my camera (of course) so I couldn't document the beautiful wedding and reception, or even some of the scenic drive...but I wouldn't have been able to snap pictures while I was driving anyway....that wouldn't be safe now would it! :)