Oh yes I did. Last Monday night I whipped up some sugar cookie dough, and bought some colorants for royale icing that would transform my plain Jane cookies into some hopeful sunrise cookies for election day.
I was inspired by all the Obama cookies I found online and in particular the one I featured in my election night menu ideas post. Plus, with an invitation to an election party featuring "Real American Food" I figured some sugar, white flour and dye was in order.
Faith and I were chatting about sugar cookie recipes when she asked if I'd be decorating them. I explained my idea and she said something along the lines of "good luck." Yeah, I needed it and apparently didn't have much. My tussle with the royale icing was perhaps the time during election day when I was most nervous about the results. This isn't a sign, is it? I wondered to myself.
Luckily the people at the party we attended were too excited and tipsy to noticed the snags and drips by the time dessert came out at 10:30. I can tell you that they tasted great and by then I knew that the taste was the true sign.
I wish (kind of) that I had photos of the mess I made, but my hands were covered in blue and red dyes and the kitchen was dusted in powdered sugar. It wasn't an ideal photography studio.
Having a victory party this weekend? Consider the iced sugar cookie, but be patient and practice first! And take photos!
Royale Icing
makes enough to decorate 4 dozen 3" cookies
3 egg whites
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
gel confectioners' color
Whip the egg whites and lemon juice until they begin to shape up, but stop before they start to show peaks. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, beating during each addition.
To color the icing, you won't need much. To begin, dip a toothpick into the color, then mix it into the icing. Keep adding bits of color in this manner until you get the right shade, using a new toothpick with each addition. Blend the icing well with a spatula. If you are using red, I recommend a "no-taste" red.
Cookie Decorating:
• Wilton's Icing Colors
• Wilton's Guide to Decorating Cookies
Sugar Cookie Recipes:
• Cookies for a Lot of People (from Mekuno Cooking)
• Sugar Cookies (from Gourmet)
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
I had the same idea for the election night party I attended, and it was my first time making sugar cookies and royale icing. I did cookies in the shape of the United States as well as some stars. Sadly, I didn't know about the concentrated gel icing, so my red turned out more of a pink and my blue was closer to robin's egg than royal. They tasted good, but I think I'll go back to my classic chocolate chip next time I make cookies.
view kappenbrink's profile
I was inspired by the royal icing Obama cookies. Unfortunately I didn't have time to make them before Tuesday, but I decided to make cookies in anticipation of victory. I really cheated though: I bought break'n'bake cookies, and Wilton tubes of blue and red. I already had white at home. They were delicious, though, and my Obama-loving co-workers thought they were fabulous.
view OrangeObsession's profile
Do you then pipe the designs on the cookies? Or is it too runny?
view EmmaC's profile
Martha Stewart once had a photo of a gingerbread cookie she ostensibly made of 2 kids snuggled under a patchwork quilt. It required no less than 35 royal icing colors. It was sick.
And I was inspired by the cookies as well, but decided to make pumpkin bars with a drizzle icing. I think I was mostly after the icing. Delicious!
view Oven Mitzie's profile
Makes me feel better for my own Royal icing mishap -- I used meringue powder, and since I was flooding my cookies, I thinned it a little. It flooded well -- not too much -- but took an eternity to dry. When it finally did dry, the icing had a strange granular texture, as if the meringue powder never properly dissolved.
What went wrong, and how can I fix it? Should I just stick to raw egg whites? (it was for 4 and 5 year olds)
view mschatelaine's profile
Mschat - Well for small children use shouldn't use raw eggs unless they are pasteurized as it can be unsafe. Make sure when you whip the meringue powder you whip till stiff peaks form. When you do the flood it sometimes does take a little while to dry-I try to leave an hour for them to harden before I plan to move or wrap them.
Emma - royal icing starts thick and then you make it runnier by adding small amounts of water so if you have a lot of design you can use it thick and then fill in with thinned icing.
On a side note make sure you mix all the color you will need before you start as it is extremely hard to match it later. When I have a lot of different colors i tend to do all one color on each cookie before moving to the next one like an assembly line. It makes it go a little faster to me. :) You may want to wear latex gloves when coloring as it does tend to get everywhere on your skin and stain.
view luv2cook's profile
They're wonderful, Sara Kate! I made cupcakes (Cups for Change) with the same theme. ;) I didn't want to fuss with making my own icing because I was short on time, so I just went with some glittery icing gel I found at the grocery.
view OneWallKitchen's profile
The meringue powder was whipped into stiff peaks (but I could still feel the granular quality of the powder, as if they never truly disolved), and the flooded cookies took ALL NIGHT and then some to dry! This experience has me spooked on Royal Icing! (and I don't spook easy)
view mschatelaine's profile