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For the last 3 years I’ve made “take-away” cookies for the party guests at Owen’s birthday parties.  This year was the “Planet” theme so I had seen rocket ships & astronauts on Pinterest. I loved the idea of using a gingerbread man cookie cutter and since I had one of those and not a rocket ship cutter, it was a no brainer.  I always use the sugar cookie recipe below from Sandra Lee. They are easy to make and are not super sweet. One tip . . . when I roll out the cookies I use a mixture of flour & powdered sugar on the counter – adds just a bit of sweet to them. Once I had all the bodies done I let them set up overnight (uncovered – they won’t get stale). Next I painted on the silver flake and then piped the lines – my icing was a tad bit runny.  I used a #4 tip to do the bodies and a #1 to pipe.

Cookies

17.5 oz. Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teas. vanilla
1 c. all-purpose flour
(variation: may add 1/4 c. cocoa & 3/4 c. flour)

Combine cookie mix w/cream cheese until crumbly. Mix in the eggs & vanilla until well combined. Add flour to make a firm dough. Refrigerate for 15 min.  Lightly flour/powder sugar board and roll out dough to 1/4 in. Bake cookies for 8 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Royal Icing

5 Tablespoons Meringue Powder (purchase at Joanne’s/Michaels/Hobby Lobby)

3 Cups Confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla – add after water

 

Mix meringue and sugar together. Start adding water a little bit at a time. Once the dry ingredients are wet, add the vanilla. The key is getting the icing to the right consistency (still don’t have it quite perfect). There’s a fine line between thin enough to pipe and too thick to pipe. I’m usually a tad bit thin.