Shinning Stars!

A friend (Janet of Cooking in Cucamonga) and I got together recently to decorate some sugar cookies (luckily she had baked them the day before otherwise this would've been a much longer process!). We happen to teach together, but we have become friends as opposed to just co-workers. We feel like everyone deserves recognition as a shinning star, so this was our way of demonstrating this! Our school colors are purple and gold, but these pictures show blue and purple!! I guess my next purchase is a decent camera that actually does my food justice. Neither of us had ever used royal icing so it was a learning experience for both of us! We definitely learned a lot along the way, and ended up having a fun afternoon together--which is more valuable than any cookie! :-)

We used the following recipe for cookies and royal icing, courtesy of Annie's Eats (of course!).

Ella’s White Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour

Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields about 40 cookies.

Royal Icing Recipe and Royal Icing Tutorial (thanks, Annie's Eats!)