Baby shower cookies

These onesie cookies are for a baby shower that's taking place tomorrow. Onesie cookies are quite the popular design when it comes to babies. The cookie recipe is the "no fail sugar cookie". It is an excellent recipe to make when you want to use cookie cutters - especially intricate design cookie cutters. It's a good recipe for that sort of thing because the cookies do not expand a lot in the oven which sometimes can make them lose their shape and look more like a big blob than an actual shape. I use this recipe whenever I'm making sugar cookies to decorate. You can flavor the cookies with any extract you want - I simply used vanilla. The icing is a vanilla flavored royal icing. I will also include that recipe below. For as simple as royal icing is, there are sure a lot of different recipes. This recipe is easy to pipe and dries hard but not rock hard. Hard enough to bag and stack but not so hard that it shatters when you bite into the cookie. It's tasty and easy to make. Just make sure you keep the bowl of icing covered when it's not being used. Use gel or paste colors to color your icing. After I package these cookies, I will post those photos also. I made the cutest little tags for the baby shower that I will attach to each cellophane bag.

Ready to decorate!

First coating is the white background. I attached a little sugar animal to each. I let these dry overnight before piping the blue on, otherwise the blue color might bleed into the white.

Next day, I outlined in blue. Attached little sugar pearls for the snaps.

NO FAIL SUGAR COOKIES

This recipe is GREAT when using complex cookie cutters. The dough holds its' shape and won't spread during baking.
Make sure you let your oven preheat for at least 1/2 hour before baking these or any other cookies.

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little
at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350
degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe
can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.

HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess -- Rather than wait for your cookie dough to
chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper.
Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator.
Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the
first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus
is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.

Antonia74 Royal Icing

Serves/Yields: about 6 cups of thick icing?
Prep. Time: 12 minutes
Cook Time:
Category: Frostings, Cookies!
Difficulty: Easy

Introduction

This icing is mixed to a stiff consistency for outlining cookies, then can be thinned with warm water to fill in the cookie shape. I like to dry my cookies for at least 24 hours...and up to 48 hours before packaging them. This icing can be kept at room temperature in an air-sealed container for literally weeks, with a good re-mixing before you use it again. I haven't had great results with keeping it in the fridge...but un-tinted icing (i.e. white) seems to be okay from the freezer.

Ingredients

6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar

Directions

In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened...about 30 seconds.

Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.

Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.

Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.

Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.

Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.