Sweet Tooth Tuesday: Tie Dye Sugar Cookies

These turned out so cute!! Maybe a bit too cute because now my Mom and sister want me to make about 150 for my sister's upcoming wedding. Yikes! This was another project for my sister's tie dye bridal shower and it was a bit of an adventure. I have never used royal icing before so I did some research on Pinterest to get me started.

I got the original idea from The Hungry Housewife.

I found some really great tips about flooding and piping royal icing from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle.

And found a recipe for royal icing (using egg whites not meringue powder) at Sweetopia. (The link for the recipe is near the bottom of the post.)

There are a ton of amazing cookie artists out there Sugerbelle and Sweetopia were both amazing sites if you want to get into this beautiful hobby.

 I started out with my families sugar cookie recipe (which is amazing!) and I promise I will share that with you all soon. Then I made the Royal Icing.

Royal Icing

1 lb powdered sugar

4 large egg whites

1 Tbs Cream of Tartar

Mix the egg whites and cream of tartar for 30 sec. to get rid of the lumps.

Pour in all the powdered sugar and mix with the paddle attachment at medium speed for 10 min.

**Just as a side note my instructions will vary slightly from the recipe found at Sweetopia. After following her recipe I found the icing to runny and had to mix it for longer at a higher speed to get the thick consistency I wanted.

I tinted about half of my icing yellow (sisters favorite color) and used a piping bag with a small tip to outline the cookies. This creates a barrier for when you go back to fill in the middle.

Then I separated the remaining icing into three bowls and colored and thinned out the consistency. You want the icing to be able to fill in the cookie and create a smooth finish. Sugarbelle describes the outline icing as the consistency of toothpaste and the flood icing to fill it in as shampoo. I just added water a teaspoon at a time till I got it right. I am sorry I can't give you better tips than that but if you need more specific instruction go to the link above to Sugarbelle. She has amazing tips and video demonstrations.

I started out trying to pipe the icing to fill in the cookie but found it much easier to spoon a little on and smooth it out and fill it in with the back of the spoon. It gave me more control.

 I put the rest of the icing in piping bags.

 And made different swirls on top of the yellow icing. I think that next time I would use squeeze bottles for more control and easier storage.

You can see that the blue and green icing is sitting on top of the yellow and we want it to all meld together. To get it all to flatten out all you have to do is give your cookie a good shake.

 TA DA! Nice and smooth.

I forgot to take a picture of the next step but all you do it take a toothpick and drag it from either the middle to the edges or edged to middle. Just experiment with it and have fun. The toothpick will leave little indented lines on your cookie, just give them another shake to smooth them out.

 Leave them to dry until hard, I left them out overnight, and then enjoy. They stack like a dream and store really well.

I hope these inspire you to get creative in the kitchen. A little extra effort can go along way. Wish me luck on the 150 I still have to make. Happy Baking!