Easy Easter Sugar Cookies with the Best Royal Icing
My Easter sugar cookies are super simple to make. They are very moist and have the best royal icing to make the sweetest Easter treat!
Ingredients
Sugar cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter soften
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon table salt
Royal icing frosting
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons meringue powder
- 8-10 tablespoons water
- food coloring optional
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
- Combine soften butter and sugar in a bowl of a stand mixer. Or in a large bowl for a hand mixer. Beat until combined.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Mixture should be light and fluffy.
- In a medium sized bowl combine your flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix until well combined
- Stir in dry ingredients one cup at a time into your wet dough until well combined and completely smooth.
- The dough should be pretty sticky still. That's completely normal. Lay out a piece of plastic wrap and put about half the dough on it. Cover with another piece of plastic wrap and flatten the dough. Store in the fridge and let chill for at least 3 hours.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Dust a clean area on your counter with flour. Don't be light with the flour. Unwrap your cookie dough and place it on the flour. Sprinkle a small amount of flour onto of your cookie dough. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inches. You will need to add more flour as needed so the cookie dough doesn't stick to the rolling pin and counter. (Be generous but don't overdo it, it will cause the cookies to be super dry).
- Use you're favorite easter cookie cutters to cut shapes and use a spatula to remove from the counter and put onto your cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are very lightly golden brown. Be aware that smaller cookies will need less baking time and larger cookies will require more baking time.
- Remove cookies immediately after coming out of oven and place onto a cooling rack or a clean space on your countertop.
- Allow cookies to completely cool before decorating.
Royal Icing
- In a bowl of a stand mixer or use a medium sized bowl if you're using a hand mixer, combine the powdered sugar and meringue powder and half of the water. Keep adding the water until the frosting is the right texture to pipe onto your cookies. Thick but pipeable. (you may need more or less water depending how thick or thin you want the icing).
- If coloring the frosting separate in bowls and color with your desired colors.
- Add your icing to a piping bag and cut a small piece off the tip of the piping bag. (you can also use a piping tip if you wish).
- Pipe icing on the cookies and add your favorite sprinkles.
- Allow cookies to harden before serving or storing. This will take several hours and depends on the thickness of your cookies.