Easy Christmas Sugar Cookies ...and how to decorate with colorflow frosting.

Easy Christmas Sugar Cookies ...and how to easily decorate with colorflow frosting.

One of my favorite little cookie elves, Olivia, has been in the kitchen creating these cute little sugar cookies, which she shared with her schoolmates on the last day of classes before the Christmas break. Everybody loves a good sugar cookie and it is much easier than you may think to add this simple decorators frosting which will dry hard and preserve whatever design you want to use. Switch up the colors and designs to whatever you like or just sprinkle onto the wet royal icing some colored sugars, silver dragees or other little candy decorations. This is another great cookie to have fun making with the kids too and would be a wonderful choice to leave for Santa.

Sugar Cookies

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen 3 inch cookies.

Cream together well:

• 1 1/2 cups butter2 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Beat in, one at a time:

• 4 eggs

Sift together and fold in until a soft dough forms:

• 5 cups sifted flour
• pinch salt
• 2 tsp baking powder

Chill the dough for an hour or two to make it easier to roll out on a floured board to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies with 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter. Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the cookies start to brown at the edges. Cool on a wire rack.

To decorate the cookies, first make some Royal Icing.

Beat together to firm peaks:

• 2 large egg whites
• 3 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)

You may need to add another couple of tablespoons of  icing sugar to make sure the frosting is stiff but able to be piped onto the cookies.

Remove about 1/3 of the frosting and put it in a piping bag with a #3 or #4 tip or in a Ziploc bag with the corner shipped off. Pipe a circle around the top of each of the cookies.

Add the color paste to the remaining frosting, for these cookies we used Wilton Cornflower Blue color paste. Beat in a teaspoon of cold water at a time to thin the frosting down just to a point were the frosting falls to a smooth surface when the whisk or electric beaters are removed. Don't over thin the icing, use only enough water as it takes to get the frosting to that point and only a teaspoon at a time.

The thinned colored frosting can then be placed in a piping bag with a #3 or #4 tip or in a Ziploc bag with the corner shipped off and piped into the middle of the circles on the cookies just until the surface is covered. Let the cookies dry for a half hour or so before piping on the white frosting to complete your design of snowflakes, trees , stars or whatever your imagination creates. Let the cookies dry overnight before storing them in an airtight container.