Cookies for the Newlyweds!

I DID IT! I made decorated sugar cookies for the first time in my LIFE!


 FUNDABBLER FACT 


In Iran, it is said that wedding ceremonies must be done under the roof for good luck!

So I have been following amazing cookie artists like Sugarbelle, Glorious Treats,  Katie's Something Sweet… All of whom sparked my need to make cookies! I must say I am no where near as good as these ladies, but hope to get somewhere close one day. 

Last week we went to our friends' (Y&P) wedding. They, like me and my husband, are a Quebecois/Persian couple so their wedding reminded us of our journey thus far and all the sweetness that comes with our different backgrounds that make our lives that much more interesting. 

I am always paranoid to give a check at the wedding because what if it gets lost? It's not like the bride and groom are going to be like, "you didn't give us a gift"… I guess you can see if it was withdrawn from your bank. Ok so conclusion: I'm just paranoid. So I decided to take them some newlywed cookies with a card underneath, and the check inside. PHEW!

Sugar Cookies: (Taken from Glorious Treat's recipe for sugar cookies Thank you miss!) 

 INGREDIENTS 

All purpose flour - 3 cups

Baking powder (ideally without aluminium) - 1 teaspoon

Unsalted butter - at room temperature 1 cup (2 sticks)

Sugar - 1 cup

Egg - 1 large

Vanilla extract - a good quality 1 teaspoon

Parchment paper

 INSTRUCTIONS (Copy and pasted from Glorious' site) 

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  This should take about 3 minutes.

Add the egg and vanilla and beat another minute or so.

Add the flour mixture slowly.  (Be careful not to add too much at a time or you will have a snowstorm of flour.)

Blend until all of the flour is incorporated and the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Take the dough out of the bowl and place it on a piece of parchment paper.  

Using your hands, knead the dough a few times.

Place the dough in a large plastic (ziplock type) bag and refrigerate for about 2 hours.  If you want to speed up the chilling process, place the bag of dough in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes. Just don't forget it in the freezer, or it will become to firm to work with (and then you'll have to wait for it to thaw).  

When it's almost time to remove the dough from the refrigerator (or freezer), preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).

-When the dough has chilled and is firm, take out about half of the dough, leaving the rest in the refrigerator (until your ready to work with it).  

For your Royal Icing Glorious suggests Wilton's recipe, and that is what I used:

 INGREDIENTS 

Meringue Powder - 3 tablespoons

Confectioners' sugar - 4 cups (about 1 lb)

Warm water - 6 tablespoons

 INSTRUCTIONS 

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 min at low speed w a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand held mixer).

THINGS I LEARNED

You will notice that you need to keep your icing covered or it will harden quite quickly. Sugarbelle suggests to store them with a paper towel and covered in an airtight container. Because I am not well equipped, I do not have pastry bags or cool squirt bottles for flooding like the experts, so I used ziplock bags with the tips cut off! Simple as that. Then to store them I put them in another ziplock bag and in the fridge. You can keep it up to 2 weeks (according to Sugarbelle) others say longer so go with what you like. 

Have fun and ENJOY!