This week’s SMS was chosen by Nina of Nina’s Cupcakes: sugar cookies. I really like sugar cookies but I don’t make them that often because royal icing and I don’t get along all that well. Sure, I could leave the cookies plain and just eat them that way but their blank canvases and all of the endless possibilities for decoration are just too much for me to resist. Unfortunately, I’m just not very talented when it comes to royal icing. I really want to be good at it – I do. But first I need to develop some patience because I’m going to need a lot more practice to develop this skill! It took me an absurdly long time to decorate six cookies and I wasn’t thrilled with the way they turned out, so definitely a lot of room for improvement!
Some of the SMS bakers who made these cookies early in the week reported they were bland so I made just a few changes to add some flavor. I love almond extract so I added 1/2 teaspoon in addition to the 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract the recipe called for. Also, I added the zest of an entire lemon. I think orange zest would work well in these cookies too and I may give that a shot if I make these again. I’d purchased cupcake-shaped cookie cutters last summer and was glad to finally have an opportunity to use them here. I snuck a few heart-shaped cookies in too because I’ve been feeling so much birthday love the past few days 🙂 Since the book didn’t provide instructions on how long to bake these cookies I kept an eye on them and thought about 10 minutes at 350 F was perfect.
The verdict? I liked them a lot – they were sturdy yet still chewy and their flavor reminded me a lot of my go-to sugar cookie recipe, mainly because of the almond extract in both. Shane ate some of the leftover dough (ok, I did too) and we both thought it was tasty. The dough was easy to work with and the cookies didn’t puff or spread much in the oven, which is always important when making cut-out sugar cookies. Overall, a definite thumbs-up to these! Thanks to Nina for hosting this week! You can find the recipe on her blog.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Thanks for baking with me this week! I love the cupcake and heart shaped cookies! There’s always room for practice with sugar cookies and you’ll always have the chance to!
I echo your thoughts on royal icing, we’re just not friends 🙁 Yours looks amazing though, I love the cupcakes.
Katie xox
Those are so adorable. You look like you get along fine with royal icing – I’ve never even attempted it!
I have never tried royal icing…heck I just opened a jar of frosting and went to it..they look messy but I like them! I will have to step out and try royal icing one of these days! Your cupcakes and heart cut outs are adorble and if you didn’t say you had trouble with RI I would have NEVER guessed it. I could picture your cookies in a bakery shop window, they look that good!
They turned out much better than mine would have. I agree. I lack the patience necessary to use royal icing to make fancy cookies. I just want to eat them!
Woooooo che buoni,ne mangerei volentieri uno!
The cupcake cookies are adorable! Nice job on the icing; I never would have guessed you had trouble. I don’t think mine will be iced – I just made the dough a few minutes ago.
I love the cupcake shape! Your cookies are adorable. I’m getting ready to attempt to make royal icing to frost mine. Keeping my fingers crossed…
I think you’re being too hard on yourself, these look great. Love the cupcake cookie cutter!
For someone who doesn’t get along with royal icing you sure have some good looking cookies 🙂
Your royal icing skills are terrific. Don’t sell yourself short! I passed on these. Hubby isn’t a big sugar cookie fan.
Very cute! I have a similar cupcake cookie cutter and I love it!
I was going to use the exact same cookie cutters… if only mine made it to the cutting board.
Good job!
I am a TERRIBLE cookie decorator. People run from my decorated cookies.
Yours on the other hand are BEAUTIFUL!!! They are just perfect looking. The hearts are lovely.
Love the cupcake cookie cutter. So cute. Where did you find?
Tracey, these are precious. You have done yourself proud. Mine look naked but that is what hubby likes.
You must have patience to do this.
These are so cute!!! I love the cupcake shape and you did a great job decorating them!
Tracey, those cookies are adorable! I love the cupcakes and the hearts. I also like that you amped up the flavor.
Happy belated birthday, too! I’ve been totally absent from the blogging world, and I have some catching up to do on your blog.
YUm! And Soooo cute!! 🙂
So CUTE! Personally, I think you were wayyyy to hard on yourself; these little cookies are adorable. Royal icing is a pain in the bun-buns and the mess we have to clean up from decorating is my worst part. The cookie dough was delicious – we nibbled too.
I just wanted to add – the hiking trip was a blast because we had sunshine =)
Tracey! You’re too hard on yourself! Those cookies look awesome! Great adjustments you made as well!
Your cookies look very nice Tracey!
Wow, how sweet and whimsical! I’ve only tried making them once. They weren’t bad, but I got lazy and didn’t like dealing with all the leftover icing. They do make a pretty gift though!
Yah very nice sugar cookies and i like very much. thanks for sharing us.
Your sugar cookies look great… and the icing is good, too! I’m gradually trying to improve my skills with royal icing, as well. It can be a challenge, but (unfortunately) I think it’s one of those “practice makes perfect” things.
Oh, how fun are those cupcake cookie cutters…just love those and you decorated them so nicely. The heart is also a nice touch. I love any excuse to make something into a heart shape…it just makes me smile.