Feel free to change up this recipe by adding your favorite flavorings. Lemon, almond, and orange zest are just some of the few that I have tried. Add them to the dough, the royal icing or both!
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 egg
Bring egg and butter to room temperature. (I cannot tell you how important this step is to the success of your dough.)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Sift flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together and set aside.
Place soften butter in the mixer and mix until creamy. Add sugar and mix for 4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
Slowly add the flour mixture and blend until a ball of dough is formed. Remove the dough from the mixer and kneed until well mixed. Divide the dough into two parts, wrap with plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least an hour.
Once chilled, place the dough on a silicone rolling mat. Place parchment paper over the dough and roll out to ¼ inch thick*. Cut cookies with your favorite cutters, place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Cookies will be soft and should not be brown. Allow cookies to cool before removing them from the cookie sheet.
*Tip: Two paint stirrers taped together = ¼ thickness. Place these sticks on each side of your dough as guides for the rolling pin. Makes perfect cookies every time!
Sweets from the Soul Royal Icing
2 lb. bag of confectioners sugar
4 tbsp. meringue powder
1 tbsp. corn syrup
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tbsp. vanilla
½ cup warm water
Sift together confectioners sugar and cream of tartar. Whisk meringue powder into warm water until frothy. Add corn syrup and vanilla and mix well. While the mixer is on low speed, slowly add sugar mixture. You may want to place a towel over the mixer to keep the “sugar cloud” down. Mixture will be stiff. Add water in ¼ tsp. increments (or use a clean spray bottle filled with water to add small amounts of water) until the desired consistency is obtained.