Back to School Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

It's almost time for the kids and teachers to get back to school!  I made some sugar cookies decorated them with royal icing for the occasion.

We have apples, bookworms and loose leaf A+ papers.

Crayons, chalkboards, numbers, and my favorite - the ABC mini rounds on writing paper. 

School time will be here before we know it!

Beginners - Part 2 - Royal Icing, Glaze Recipes

I'm often asked by beginners for the recipes that I use for cookie dough and for icing.

You'll find my list of cookie recipes on this page.

I use royal icing to decorate my cookies.  The following royal icing recipes are nearly identical.

Royal Icing Recipes . . .

Sugarbelle's - the 2 lb version will be plenty for one batch of cookies.
Glorious Treats - and a great tutorial on outlining and flooding.
Sweetopia's
Lilaloa's
Bake at 350's
Design Me a Cake's

Sugarbelle's Chocolate Royal Icing

Glaze Recipes . . .

Some cookiers prefer to work with Glaze.
CookieCrazie's
Karen's Cookies

Royal Glaze Recipe . . .

Still others sing the praises of "Royal Glaze" - a combination of royal icing and glaze.  The invention of  Michelle, From Oven...to Lovin'

If you're new to cookieing, choose a dough recipe, an icing recipe and get to it!

Get Well Soon Sugar Cookies by Bird's Bites

Did you happen to see these Get Well Soon cookies that I made a while back?  (Oh how much I've learned about decorating cookies since that post!  I would do it so much differently and easily now!)

Somehow those cookies have been pinned and re-pinned quite a few times.  Several people have asked me to send them a copy of the prescription label for their use.

One of those cookiers was Bird's Bites.  Look what she made!  Well done!

Aren't they a fun way to cheer up a sick friend?

I wish I knew how to create an editable pdf or something so that I could share the prescription label online.  If anyone knows how to do that, I'd love to hear from you!

Edit:  Mandi from PurdueAvenue.com made an editable pdf!  She has graciously shared it here!


Please check out and like Bird's Bites on facebook.  She makes super cute cookies!

Beach Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

This batch was soooo fun to decorate!

I think they're super cute but there are several things that I would do differently next time.

The sailboats . . . totally adorable BUT I'm thinking that the scallopy bottomed sails aren't working for me.  Just plainly, slightly curved next time.  Notice that I remembered to make them reverse images unlike the palm trees and fish.  Dang it.  I like when the designs are going in opposite directions.  I think it makes for a better presentation.  Oh well.

The fish . . . to give them mouths or not?  I can never decide when I'm doing animals.  Sometimes it takes them to the next level of cuteness.  Other times they just look silly, in a not cute kind of way.  I chose not to give these fishies mouths and they look like they're missing something.  Next time, simple, tiny mouths to cuten them up.

The palm trees . . . meh.  That about sums it up.  Kinda boring looking.  They're a nice addition to the collection, but alone they're just not very inspiring (or inspired).

The round cookies . . . LOVE!  The tropical flowers were made using Sugarbelle's technique for Hawaiian shirts.  They were so easy and fun to do.  I love the look.  I don't however love the outline that I put around the smaller cookies.  They looked much more crisp and clean without it.  Thankfully I left the larger ones without the outline.

It's funny.  Sometimes when I outline a design at the very end, it's just what the cookie needed and really improves the look.  I was expecting the same thing this time.  Nope.

I sound pretty negative, don't I?  I don't mean to be.  It's constructive criticism of my work, given by me!  I'm quite pleased with how these came out but I learn something every time and look forward to testing out those lessons.

I'm ready to try this collection again!

Summer Fun Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

These cookies would be terrific for a picnic, barbeque, crab feast, or trip to the beach!

Ice cream cones, watermelon wedges, sunglasses, the sun and of course crabs and mini crabs!

In case you didn't guess, the sun was made from a flower cutter.  Still looks like a flower, huh?  I think I need a sun cutter!

White on White Wedding Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

I made some wedding cookies this week.  I wanted a design that wasn't cutesie, but more of a classic. I thought that white on white scrolls or vines would be perfect.

I did the piping free-hand onto two sizes of hearts.  No two are identical.  They came out pretty well.

They look nice with some simple, white daisies.

I want to try scroll work or vines again.  Next time - two different colors, wet-on-wet.

Fourth of July Flag Platter of Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Happy Fourth of July to you!

I made a flag platter for Memorial Day, It was made up of rectangles in red, white, and blue, then arranged to look like the American flag.  You can see it here. That platter was inspired by Bearfoot Baker, who was inspired by a star platter made by Cookie Artisan.

I decided to re-visit the whole idea.  This time I made a platter of assorted shapes.  I kept each cookie very simple, then arranged them to look like our "Star-Spangled Banner".

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

How about some National Anthem trivia?  Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled banner.  He wrote the song based on his experience during the War of 1812.  He watched the attack of Fort McHenry from a ship in the Chesapeake Bay.

The next morning "by the dawn's early light" he was able to see that "our flag was still there", "so gallantly streaming".  Beautiful, huh?

Francis' family was from Maryland.  He's buried here in Frederick.  I guess he's our local celebrity.  Everything's named after him.  There's Francis Scott Key mall.  Schools, streets and bridges are named after him.  I'm sure there's a car dealership or two also.  Even our minor league baseball team - the Frederick Keys - bears his name.

Ok, back to cookies . . .

Here is a closer look at the shapes that make up the platter (minus a butterfly which I forgot to include!).

Welcome to Crater City my friends!  Just look at those daisy petals.

I decided to decorate all of these a little differently.  Usually, I use just one consistency of icing for outlining and flooding - close to 20-second icing.  I only use a thicker icing if I have to write.

This time I decided to make two consistencies for each color.  I must say that flooding those large cookies with a 10-second icing is absolutely dreamy.  It levels out so quickly and easily.

However, thinner icing certainly does have a greater tendency to crater in small areas.  Exhibit A is above.

I outlined all of the daisy petals with piping icing, let it dry, then flooded each one.  They were beautiful!.....for a few hours.  Then the craters appeared.  Lesson learned.

There's a lesson to be learned with every single decorated batch of cookies.  It sure keeps things interesting!

No matter the troubles that our Country goes through, our banner yet waves.  God bless our country, Land of the free, Home of the brave.

Happy Independence Day!