How to make sugar cookies.

I didn't make sugar cookies until a few months ago when i first visited Bake at 350 ' s blog, and even the  i only tried a simple design because although they look AMAZING  they're a little daunting to say the least. A few weeks ago i made a hello kitty cookie for my food technology gcse coursework and everybody loved them because they looked so cute! And then last week, while checking the hundreds of blogs that i seem to read, i came across Lilaloa's cookie contest and decided that i absolutely NEEDED the prizes, although after seeing everyone elses designs, i think thats nearing on impossible.

Anyways, back to making the cookies, i followed this recipe but using 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla and not using any almond extract.

The dough should look something like this, but i found it was a little sticky at first so i kneaded  a bit more flour into the dough so it was easier to roll.

Using a cutter is a lot easier than stencils, especially when the stencil has 14 sides. *sigh* Anyway cut out the stencil and then cut the cookie dough around the stencil with a knife.

This is what thedy looked like after i'd cut them out, quite cute aren't they?

When the cookies have cooled a bit, draw out the design with edible pen. I use the americolor ones that come in a 2 pack from The cake decorating company in Nottingham.

Then trace the outlines, where you have drawn on in pen, with royal icing. All the outlines with my designs were black so thats the colour that i coloured the icing.(p.s. don't make the mistake of thinking glace icing is the same as royal icing. It isn't!)

Then colour the icing all the different colours you need, and add water until its the consistency of golden syrup or something similar.(p.s. use a toothpick to get into the corners of the cookies and to pop any airbubbles)

So thats it! After i used the edible pen again to draw on the details like the eyes and faces. Simple! (kind of.....)

See below posts to see the finished designs, and don't forget to check out Lilaloa's great competition.

Abbie x