Life Skills - Day 8

How to Make and Decorate Cookies with Royal Icing

Yes, I do consider baking a life skill, and this is something I'd never done before, so I thought it would be fun. My friend (the Ganache Queen) is really good at making these fancy cookies, so she was more than happy to have me and two other friends over to her house for a cookie decorating party today. They had NEVER decorated cookies before (gasp . . . a travesty, I know), so she made the traditional frosting for them to try, but they quickly switched to the royal icing as well. They learned with the traditional frosting while I learned how to make the royal icing, and then we spent the next few hours just talking, watching Christmas movies, and making really cute cookies . . . what a nice day :) So for the royal icing, I don't have the actual recipe, but this is similar to what we did (Royal Icing), plus we added vanilla. It was much easier than I thought it would be, and the results were great. This was a really fun project. Please enjoy my pictures from today:

First, make a ton of sugar cookies (luckily, she had done that ahead of time)

Next, make the royal icing. Whip some meringue powder (5 Tbsp.) with warm water (3/4 C.)

Add a ton of powdered sugar (one 2 lb. bag + a little less than one more cup) and let mix on low speed for 10 minutes

Mix in some vanilla (1 tsp.)

Adjust the consistency with more powdered sugar or water and then make fun colors

Put into various piping bags with small tips

Frost a ton of adorable cookies

Share them with someone you love :)