New House Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Can you guess why I made these cookies?

No, I didn't buy or sell a house.

No, I don't have new neighbors.

Nope, I don't know anyone that has moved or is moving any time soon.

These were cookies for my Mom for . . . Mother's Day!  A tad unconventional, huh?

She was a realtor when I was a kid.  She recently renewed her license and just sold her first house this second time around.  I'm so proud of her.  The last time she worked in realty, there were no cell phones.  There was no internet.  I don't think they even had fax machines then.

She had to learn a lot of technical stuff to get this house sold, like editing documents and getting them signed online, then forwarding them to people.  I'm no techie, but definitely more techie than my Mom, and I don't know if I could have figured this stuff out.

One funny thing that she learned and shared with me was the phrase "copy you".  Her client told her that she'd "copy her" on an email.  Or maybe she wanted my Mom to "copy her".  Whatever it was, it was a revelation to good old Mom.

I hope that when I'm her age, I'm able to somewhat keep up with whatever crazy advances are happening.

So here is my "I'm proud of you", "Happy Mother's Day" present for Mom. Sugar cookies decorated with royal icing . . .

Moving trucks and keys.

Sold signs.

Cute houses and mini houses.

I had so much fun with these.  It was hard to stop.  I thought about adding siding lines to the houses, tiles to the roofs, a trellis around the doors. 




Bake at 350 was the inspiration behind these designs.





And unfortunately now . . .

Keepin' it Real . . .

This is the section in my posts to show you the cookies that I'd really rather not. The cookies that didn't quite live up to the dream.

Do you have any idea what these were supposed to be?

No, not a green flag of some imaginary country.

They were meant to be astro turf door mats!  Ha ha!

I saw some over at Cookie Crazie.  Aren't hers adorably hilarious?  It looks like she used green sanding sugar.  I decided to make mine using a #233 icing tip.  You know the one with a bunch of little holes?  I thought that it would make fabulous astro turf.  Well, it probably would if I had thicker consistency icing. 

The welcome mat cookies were the last ones I made of this batch.  It was 11 pm, the night before Mother's Day.  When the grass affect didn't work, I had a few choices . . . 1. thicken up the icing and try the #233 again, 2. make some green sanding sugar, 3. spread the icing around a bit and call it a night.

Obviously I chose #3.  I ate one and gave the other to my son.

The next time I have the occasion to make "new house" cookies, I'm going to try that 233 again with thicker icing!

Oh, and did you notice that all of the cookie designs are mirror images?  Yeah, baby.  You can read about that tip here.

Crafting Supplies in Sugar Cookies Decorated with Royal Icing

Who doesn't adore craft supplies? Here they are in sugar cookies decorated with royal icing.

Odd subject matter for sugar cookies? Not if you have a friend that sells the most fabulous, unique supplies available online!

My dear etsy friend, schoollocker, recently sent me some cupcake liners, not for baking, but for making pincushions. She knew that I was having trouble keeping pink liners in stock so she kept her eagle eye out for some and sent them to me!



So how to repay her? Cookies! I scoured her shop for inspiration.

Just click on the links below to see the supplies that inspired each cookie.




Can you tell what these are? They're carnival tickets!












And mini envelopes in bright colors. So cute!















And paper tags.






















And my most favorite of her supplies. Library cards!

You remember these, right? Schoollocker sent me some a while back that I used to make mini notebooks for my elementary school reunion. Love them!






Last and absolutely least . . .

Keepin' it Real . . .

This is the section in my posts to show you the cookies that I'd really rather not. The cookies that didn't quite live up to the dream.

Buttons. Bah. Stupid holes. Schoollocker's buttons are adorable, unlike my sugar cookie version. So lame.



If you're a crafter, you have to check out The Schoollocker. She has the most awesome supplies. Something for everyone!

Saint Patricks Day Sugar Cookies

I had a lot of fun decorating these! Much of that may have had to do with the fact that these cookies didn't spread while baking. Finally! You can read my post on that whole saga here.

I made these for some family friends. Is there a better way to say, "Happy Saint Patrick's Day" than with sugar cookies and royal icing? I don't think so.


The derby hats came out better than my attempt here.

The names of the kids begin with J and B. I think they'll like having their own letter cookies.


Green shamrocks of course and some round cookies that I was playing around with.


Sweet leprechauns and gold coins. If you make cookies, I know that you recognize these leprechauns. Sugarbelle's upside down cupcake fellas. They were so fun to decorate and I love how they came out. I gave ears to one little guy (which you can only see in the photo at the bottom of this post because somebody ate him before the final photo shoot and sending them off to our friends!).

Keepin' it Real . . .

This is the section in my posts to show you the cookies that I'd really rather not. The cookies that didn't quite live up to the dream.



These stripey ones remind me of citrus fruit and summer. I should have left out the yellow. The stripes are kind of wonky too. Oh well.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

St Patrick's Day Decorated Sugar Cookies

How about a few shamrock cookies for St Patrick's Day? For these, I flooded alternating sections with 20-second royal icing, letting each section dry before moving on to the next.

Then I got out my new KopyKake projector. That thing's a little intimidating! I wanted to make some "Keep Calm" cookies so I made up a little saying for St Patrick's Day.


Then I wanted to make some super cute derby hat cookies, with little shamrocks tucked into the hatbands.

I bought this derby hat cutter because my family has a running joke about them. Ever since we were little, if anyone ever asked my Dad what gift he bought for someone, his answer was (and still is) "a derby hat". Hilarious, right? Of course it is.

So I bought the cutter with plans to someday make derby hat cookies for a family event.

The St Patrick's Day hat idea happened before that though.

Unfortunately my vision of this adorable hat was much cuter as a vision than it was in reality. So.....

Keepin' it Real . . .

This is the section in my posts to show you the cookies that I'd really rather not. The cookies that didn't quite live up to the dream.


Ha ha ha ha ha! Cute concept. Very poor execution. Just look at those "shamrocks"! The top shamrocks were wet on wet. That was my plan but they were so awful that I then tried wet on dry. They were just as bad.

It wasn't until after I made these that I saw the perfect wet-on-wet shamrocks on LilaLoa's blog. She even shows us how to do it. Oh how I wish I had seen her post before making these! Well, there's always next year.

Bandage / Band Aid Decorated Sugar Cookies

A co-worker of mine had minor foot surgery. I had the hardest time trying to decide on a cookie design for her. I had a bandaged foot idea. Then I thought it was stupid and decided to make snowmen. Then at the last minute I went back to the bandage idea. I wish I had stuck with snowmen!

Those aren't sooooo bad. I think they're the best of the bunch. It gets worse. . .

Those feet are hilarious and not in the funny, ha ha way I had hoped. They're hilarious in that they are so completely lame. I almost didn't include the foot cookies in my package but I didn't have enough of the band aids, so in they went. They'll be good for a laugh of some sort anyway.

Would you like to know how to make the band aid cookies?

You'll need . . .
2.5" square cookie cutter, cut squares into thirds (rectangles)
2" square cookie cutter, cut corners off with 2.25" circle cutter
1.5" round cookie cutter
blue and green royal icing - 20-second, #2 tip

(20-seconds is the time it takes to come back together after being "cut" with a butter knife.)

Here's what I did. . .





For the rectangular band aids - cut dough with a 2.5" square cutter. With the cutter, cut each square into thirds, creating rectangles.

For the squares - cut dough with a 2" square cutter. Cut the corners off with a 2.25" round cutter.

For the round ones - cut circles with a 1.5" round cutter.









Flood the cookies with a #2 tip and 20-second icing. Allow to dry for a little while.



(I can't imagine anyone will be making foot cookies with band aids on them, but on the off-chance. . . You can see how they came about the same way.)










Flood the center of each band aid. Allow to dry for a little while.














With a #1.5 tip and the same icing, add rows of dots.

So, what would I have done differently? Just about everything. Well, I would have preferred a totally different design. But if I went with the whole bandage thing?

I would have only done band aid shapes. And just the rectangular ones. I'm not a fan of the squares and circles.

I'm happy with the flooding technique I used and the way the design came out.

I'm also glad that I did them in blue and green. I thought about doing them in tan but decided that they needed some color.

I would not do the feet again.

It's time for the most embarrassing part of this post . . .

Keepin' it Real . . .

I showed you what worked, what I wasn't thrilled with, now it's time to show you what REALLY didn't work . . .


I'll wait until you've stopped laughing.

I showed them to my son and asked him what they are.
He said, "Feet with sandals".
"Sandals?" I asked.
"Yeah, roman sandals."

In case you were thinking the same thing (or worse), those are feet wrapped in gauze. Horrendous, huh? No, these weren't included in the cookie package.

You know what I thought about making? Rolls of gauze. I'm soooo glad that I didn't attempt it. The only reason that I didn't was because I thought they'd end up looking like rolls of toilet paper. Smart thinking, eh? At least I made the correct decision on that one.

. . . . . .

This whole set is definitely my least favorite of the cookies that I've made so far.

But I'm already thinking ahead to my next batch. I'm going to a bridal shower in a few weeks. The mother of the bride gave me a wedding cake cutter to use for the cookies. I want to decorate them with flowers. My mind is swimming with different flower possibilities. You'll be seeing what I come up with soon.

Frog and Daisy Sugar Cookies

Frog and daisy sugar cookies decorated with royal icing for sweet Megan's 16th birthday! She loves frogs so that was an easy choice. I added the daisies because they're pretty just like her. :)

Want to know how to do it? You'll need. . .

Green flood icing - 20-second, #2 tip
Green piping icing, #1.5 tip
White flood icing - 20-second, #2 and #1.5 tip
Black piping icing, #1.5 tip
Red or Pink piping icing, #1.5 tip
Yellow flood icing - 20-second, #2 tip

(20-seconds is the time it takes to come back together after being "cut" with a butter knife.)

Here's what I did. . .




For the square ones, before baking, make a light impression with the frog cookie cutter to help with the decorating later.

















Flood the heads with green. Allow to dry for a little while.


















Flood the bodies. Allow to dry for a little while.















Add the eyes. I did them a few different ways.





For these, make half circles with white flood icing. Immediately make half circles above the whites with green for the eye lids.












Here we have a winking frog. Ha! One eye is just green flood icing. The other is done the same way as above.



The froggie on the right has eyes simply made with white flood icing circles.








Time to add the legs. Once the legs were added, they started to really look like frogs!



After the whites of the eyes have dried for a while, use black piping icing to draw smaller circles (half circles actually if you can manage it).



Use a toothpick to add a small white highlight to each eye.






Using piping icing, add a green mouth, pink tongue and dots on the legs.

For the square cookie, flood the background with white.















On to the daisies. . .


Before baking(or immediately after if you're the forgetful type like me), make a light impression for the flower center with a small circle cutter (or a soda top if you're like me and don't have one small enough). Flood with yellow. Allow to dry for a while.












Flood the petals with white. Try not to think about sunny-side-up eggs. Allow to dry.













Use piping icing to outline the petals and to make dots around the centers of the flowers.


For the leaves, simply flood, allow to dry, pipe the details.


So pretty!













So what would I do differently next time? I'm thrilled to say "not much". Yay! I'm super pleased with the way these cookies turned out.

I do wish that I had used pink for the tongues. I think that the red just stands out too much.

I also wish that I had made some of the leaves mirror images of the others, instead of having the curve of the vein the same on all of them.

Pretty minor changes, huh? Woo hoo!

Before I go patting myself on the back too much. . .

I'm about to add something that may become an often recurring segment to my posts. I'll call it. . .

Keepin' it Real

I showed you what worked, so I should show you what didn't. . .




Since I had bumped the leg and the toe on two cookies, I used those to test out adding front legs. Oy. What are those? Flappers? Fins? Is he stuck somewhere between a tadpole and a frog?

Miss Frog on the right is included here because she's overdone it a bit with the false eyelashes. I really wanted to add a feminine touch to these frogs with eyelashes. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Those cookies aren't going to Megan. They're on the "you may eat these" tray for my guys to enjoy. Luckily the mistake cookies taste just as good as the others.

Well, these cookies were super fun to decorate and I can't believe how I pleased I am with them. If you make frogs like these, I would love to see them! Please leave me a link in the comments.

Thanks for visiting!