Go Back

Heart Candy Sugar Cookies

Saura Kline
Sugar cookie recipe with easy royal icing.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients
  

Sugar Cookies

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 cup butter, soft
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbsp milk

Royal Icing

  • 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 3 Tbsp meringue powder
  • 8-12 Tbsp water
  • food coloring

Instructions
 

  • Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Put
    butter and sugar in a stand mixer bowl. Beat with paddle attachment on low
    speed to blend, then increase speed to medium and beat until soft and light.
    Add egg, milk, and then flour mixture, beating after each addition until
    blended, and scraping inside of bowl as needed.
  • Divide dough into 2 equal sizes and wrap. Chill
    dough for a minimum of 30 minutes. Line 2-4 sheet pans with
    parchment paper.
  • Lightly flour a work surface and rolling pin and roll 1
    dough disk to 1/4 inch thick, lifting and re-flouring board and rolling pin as
    needed to prevent sticking. Cut out cookies using whatever shapes you like.
    Transfer cookies to prepared sheet pans, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Dust
    cookie cutters in flour if dough starts to stick. Gather scraps, re-roll, and
    cut.
  • Chill cookies for 10 minutes while oven is preheating. Preheat
    oven to 350°F. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until edges of the cookies are
    lightly golden brown. Cool cookies completely before icing.
  • Make royal icing, sift powdered sugar into a stand mixer bowl fitted
    with a whisk attachment. Add meringue powder. With mixer on low speed, add
    water, 1 Tbsp. at a time until combined, scraping bowl as needed. Increase
    speed to high and beat until icing is shiny, thickened, and smooth and holds a
    soft peak that flops over when whisk is lifted, 3-5 minutes. (If icing is too
    thick, add an additional Tbsp. water.) If it falls off the whisk, add an
    additional 1/4 cup sifted powdered sugar.
  • Divide icing into a few 4 different bowls to
    color. Leave a smaller amount of icing in the mixing bowl to use later for lettering.
    Add a few drops of food gel to each and stir to mix evenly. Dunk the top of the
    cookie into your icing bowl and scrape it along the side of the bowl to get an
    easy fill on the cookie. Continue to do this with each cookie in various
    colors.
  • Take the remainder of the icing and color deeper with a red
    color. Transfer to a piping bag with a writing tip, or just cut a small tip on
    the piping bag to write. Write words on each of the cookie.
  • Once icing is complete, let the icing set up completely for
    1 hour. Store in an airtight container.