easter sugar cookies- madison loosle
easter sugar cookies- madison loosle
Thank you Madison for sharing this post with us!
I love Fin & Vince’s new Summer Nostalgia line because it takes you back to a simple childhood. It got me thinking about what I want my kids to remember about their childhood. Something that we love to do together is make cookies. We usually do them for at least every holiday, although, I do wish we did it more than that. Since Easter is coming up, we wanted to make Easter sugar cookies. When we make sugar cookies, my kids help roll out the dough, cut them out, frost and decorate them. It's definitely messy to do with kids, but it's something they look forward to and really enjoy.
Heritage Knit Top- Toffee/ Heritage Knit Short- Toffee/ Denim Overall- Stripe/ Classic Vest- Natural/ Amelia Romper- Toffee/ Amelia Bonnet- Natural
I love this recipe (at the bottom of the post) because they are soft cutout sugar cookies that keep their shape and the dough does not need to be chilled before baking- perfect edges every time! In the past, I have used store bought to save time, just make sure it says cutout sugar cookies on the package. The big cookie cutters we used are vintage and the small ones are just from Walmart. You can of course use any shape, even just circles are great and look like eggs.
When we do the frosting, we like to use reusable squeeze bottles to pour out the frosting. I found ours at Walmart. You can also use a piping bag with a tip or a ziplock bag with a small hole cut out to squeeze the frosting out of. To frost them, use the bottles to outline the cookie with frosting, then fill it in. I like to use toothpicks to help spread and get rid of any bubbles. It will help the frosting from coming down on the side.
I like to do the outline for my kids and then have them fill in the middle. By the end, they were doing the outline as well. I find this a much easier way for kids to frost cookies because spreading with a knife is still pretty difficult for my kids. Don’t worry about getting this perfect, just have fun with it. The imperfect ones are my favorite.
With the flowers, I frosted the whole flower with white and then I waited until the frosting hardened to the yellow centers. My son Henry got creative and made a fried egg. To achieve this you will do the whole cookie white and then add the yellow center right away. It was my favorite cookie! Arthur had fun using all of the different colors and putting the chicks and bunnies on the cookies.
The little chicks and bunnies on the cookies are Wilton Icing Decorations. They can be purchased at craft stores, Walmart or Target. Wilton makes all different kinds of icing decorations for each holiday, so i always like to use these because my kids love them and they make the cookies extra cute.
This is one of my favorite things to do with my kids. It can be hard and very messy but I really do think it's worth it. I hope it’s memories that my kids will cherish forever.
Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 Cup unsalted butter
- 1 Cup granulated white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- In the bowl of your mixer cream butter and sugar until smooth, at least 3 minutes
- Beat in extracts and egg.
- In a separate bowl combine baking powder and salt with flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients. The dough will be very stiff. If it becomes too stiff for your mixer turn out the dough onto a countertop surface. Wet your hands and finish off kneading the dough by hand.
- DO NOT CHILL THE DOUGH. Divide into workable batches, roll out onto a floured surface and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side (closer to 1/4 inch rather than 1/8).
- Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
NOTES:
- You can use salted butter (just out the 1/2 teaspoon salt).
- If you must chill the dough, just leave it on the counter top for 10 minutes before rolling or work the dough with your hands for a few minutes.
- You can omit the almond extract if you do not have it available, however the taste is really fantastic with the hint of almond.
- Keep in mind that the recipe yield will vary according to how thick you roll your cookies and how large or small your cutters are.
- Bake for 6 minutes to test. They should be soft. Leave them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to cool completely. If you reach 7-8 minutes and the edges turn brown, your cookie will be crisper.
Frosting
I got the recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. She has a video to show you what the consistency should be.
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 3 Tablespoons meringue powder
- 9-10 Tablespoons room temperature water
- Food coloring
DIRECTIONS:
- In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat all of the icing ingredients together on high speed for 1.5 – 2 minutes.
- When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5-10 seconds. If it’s too thick, add a little more water. (On particularly dry days, I use up to 12-14 Tablespoons water total.) If it’s too thin, add a little more sifted confectioners’ sugar.
- Icing completely dries in about 2 hours at room temperature. If you’re layering royal icing onto cookies for specific designs and need it to set quickly, place cookies in the refrigerator to help speed it up.
NOTES:
- When you’re not working directly with the royal icing (for example, you are decorating cookies but you still have some icing left in the bowl that you intend to use next), place a damp paper towel directly on the surface of the royal icing. This prevents it from hardening. If you use the bottles the frosting won’t harden if you have the lid on.