How to make easy Easter sugar cookies with royal icing!

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Easter is one of my favorite opportunities to get creative in the kitchen! I love trying out new ways to make adorable and tasty treats featuring spring fever. Especially when it comes to recipes like this one for my adorable Easter Sugar Cookies with royal icing!

When I first attempted these Easter cookies, it was basically an experiment. I wanted to make something special to do a creative photoshoot for Easter, but I was also trying to figure out the best techniques for making these kinds of sugar cookies and trying to get more familiar with using royal icing. 

I learned a lot through this process! I not only learned how to make better sugar cookies, but I also found out what kind of piping bags worked best for this particular icing, what ingredient brands taste better, and better baking techniques, and I improved my video recording techniques!

Now I’ve got it all nailed down and took all the guesswork out of the recipe for you! Making these cookies is most effective in stages and batches. The process is a bit long and can’t be rushed, so I tend to break the process up over a few days. I usually make the dough one day, mix the icing another day, then bake the cookies a couple of days later. It does help that these cookies can be frozen in whatever stage and still be fresh after baking! 

This process can even be done over the course of a whole week and still turn out fresh! This ensures that the process isn’t rushed at all and that large amounts of cookies can be made quite quickly. Despite this Easter project being for work, I’ve come to really enjoy the process that is cookie making and decorating! 

Everybody has their activities to de-stress and relax, and mine happens to be decorating cookies. To some It may seem like a daunting task to have a whole tub of cookies to decorate, but I’ve found the fun and relaxation in it, especially when I get my daughter or son to help! Here’s how to make my Easter Sugar Cookies with royal icing!

Easter Cookie Equipment

First, let me break down the equipment and baking tools needed for these Easter cookies. There’s not a ton of materials needed, but there are some specific tools you need for the royal icing process. Here are all the tools I use to make Easter sugar cookies:

• Kitchen mixer
• 3-Tier Cooling Rack for Cookies
• Adjustable rolling pin
• Easter cookie cutters
• Silicone Baking Mat
• Plastic food wrap
• Baking sheet
• Craft heat gun 
• Needle Modeling Tool
• Royal icing piping bags

Sweet Sugar Cookie Ingredients

Now let’s talk about Easter ingredients. Surprisingly you don’t need a lot here! Just some typical sugar cookie ingredients along with some simple icing ingredients. Here are all of my ingredients for Easter sugar cookies with royal icing:

Easter Cookies:

• 1 cup unsalted butter– softened
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour, sifted

Royal Icing:

• 1 lb confectioners sugar
• 3 tbsp meringue powder
• 6 tbsp warm water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract, optional
• Squeeze gel colors: gold, pink, green, blue, violet

Garnish:

• Easter sprinkles

How to Make Easter Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

And now it’s time for some sugar cookie excellence! This Easter cookie recipe is simple and easy to follow along with, however it is a time-consuming process so I highly recommend breaking up the process over a few days to keep from using up all of your energy. Here’s how to make Easter sugar cookies with royal icing:

Making Easter Sugar Cookies:

1. First, measure out all of the cookie ingredients.
2. Then, in a medium-size mixing bowl, combine the sifted flour and salt together.
3. Next, in the large bowl of a stand mixer, beat the room temperature butter and sugar together until light, pale, and smooth.
   1. You can opt for a hand mixer if you don’t have a stand mixer.
4. Add the egg and vanilla extract into the butter mixture and beat again.
5. Then, add the dry ingredients ⅓ at a time into the stand mixer bowl, mixing well between each addition.
   1. When the dough gets stiff, finish kneading it with wet hands.
6. Lay out some plastic wrap on a flat surface. Scoop the cookie dough into two separate sections.
7. Next, wrap each dough portion while flattening it with your hands. Let the wrapped dough chill in the fridge for 3 hours before rolling it out.
8. After chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F. On a lightly-floured surface, use the rolling pin to flatten the chilled cookie dough out until it is ¼ inch thick. 
9. Then, use the Easter cookie cutters to cut the shapes out of the cookie dough. Transfer the cookie cut-outs to a cookie sheet lined with a silicone liner.
10. Before baking, let the baking sheet of cookie cut-outs chill in the fridge for 5-10 minutes.
    1. This is so the cookies will keep their form and not spread out while baking.
11. Bake the sugar cookies for about 8-10 minutes.
12. Let the cookies cool slightly on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a tiered wire rack to let them cool completely.

Baker Tip: Now at this point I usually store my cooled sugar cookies in an airtight container and wait to decorate them until the next day. I like to separate the time between baking and actually decorating them because it’s just too much work and too time-consuming for one day.

Making Royal Icing:

1. First, in a large bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder.
2. Then, add the water one spoon at a time, mixing between additions. Add the vanilla extract. Mix all the ingredients on low speed for about 5-7 minutes, or until the mixture is shiny. 
3. Separate the icing into several bowls, one bowl for each icing color you want to make. Then mix in a drop or two of the squeeze gel colors in each bowl until you get the desired colors.
   1. For each color icing you need 2 different consistencies. A thicker consistency for borders and edges, and a thinner one for flooding or filling in. 
   2. When you get each colored icing to the right thicker consistency, transfer ¼ – ½ of it into a piping bag and tie it off.
   3. Use the remaining icing to make a thinner consistency by adding a little more water into the mixture.
4. Once the icing consistencies are ready, transfer each one into a separate piping bag and tie them off.

Decorating Sugar Cookies:

1. First, cut the tips of the icing bags to use them for decorating.
   1. For piping bags with the thicker icing, cut off a very thin tip of the bag, about ⅛ of an inch. 
   2. For the bags with thinner icing, cut 1/16 of an inch. If this opening is too small you can always cut a little more off of the bag. 
   3. I like to do a little test squeeze to make sure the icing comes out the way I want it to before cutting any more from the piping bag, just to make sure.
2. Then, start decorating the sugar cookies by outlining the cookie shapes with the thicker icing. 
3. Next, use the thinner icings to fill in the outlines.
   1. Use the needle modeling tool to pop any icing air bubbles, to spread the icing, and to help shape the details.
4. After decorating the sugar cookies, use a craft heat gun to blow on them for just a few seconds, about 10 inches away from the cookies, to create a thin crust on the icing.
   1. This step is so that the flooded icing does not cave in on itself.
5. Finally, I like to add Easter sprinkles and finish my sugar cookies by letting them air dry in a cool place for 2 days before they’re ready for packaging and storing.

How to Store Iced Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing

To store iced sugar cookies: seal the cookies up tightly in an airtight container or in a ziploc bag and store either on the counter for up to 1 week, or in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Label the date on the outside of the container to keep up with freshness. If desired, these cookies can be frozen at any point of the process whether it’s the dough, fully decorated cookies, or undecorated baked cookies.

To freeze iced sugar cookies: start by placing the cookies in a flat, spaced-out layer on a baking sheet and freeze for ½ an hour. Then, cover the cookies with a layer of parchment paper and stack the cookies. Wrap the stacked cookies in plastic food wrap and then again with aluminum foil. Label the date on the outside of the wrapping. These frozen cookies will stay good for 4 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before serving.

To store royal icing: store in an airtight container or bag at room temperature for up to 3 weeks. To freeze royal icing: transfer it to a ziploc bag and remove all the air. Mark the date on the outside of the bag and freeze for up to 3 months. To thaw the icing, just set it out and bring it back to room temp. Afterwards, if needed, add a little water to moisten back up.

Other Easter Recipes

Egg-cellent Easter Recipes

Want all of the Easter ideas so you can decide which one will work best for your Easter holiday plans? I’ve got you covered with simple Easter cupcakes, traditional Easter breads, and even some unorthodox Easter options!

• Easter Bunny Cupcakes
• Mini Easter Bread Kulich
• Italian Easter Bread
• Italian Mini Easter Breads
• Easter Lemon Cookies
• Easter Meringue Bird Cookies
• Easter Charcuterie Board
• Easter Chocolate Covered Pretzels- Carrots
• Easter Chocolate Covered Pretzels- Bunnies and Ducklings
• Dying Easter Eggs with Food Coloring
• Gold-Painted Easter Eggs

More sugar cookie fun:

• Ice Skate Sugar Cookies
• Skull Halloween Sugar Cookies
• Copycat Maggiano’s Lemon Wedge Cookies
• Royal Icing