Royal Icing...check!

You may remember earlier this month I created a list of 12 things I wanted to do before I turned I 30.  I would cross one thing off a month.  Well, this month folks, we tackled Royal Icing.

I don't know what my deal was.  I had tried and tried in the passed but apparently was just not patient enough.  It was always way too runny and would run off the cookie or soak the cookie in icing and then it would fall apart. blah. So now, I dare say I have "mastered" it but I'm certainly not scared of it in the least now for future cookie projects.  The mission...star cookies.  This was my inspiration...

and here is what I came up with...

here's how I did it...

certainly got me in the Christmas spirit to be making and icing sugar cookies!  I did refrain from playing music...but it was hard :)

I'm not sure I could ever be a great food photographer because I do so much cooking and baking at night...and so the light hates me...but the cookies were delicious!  I made them at night so I could focus on only icing them the next day.

I set out all the cookies and counted out exactly how many I would need for each color and each section...

then it was time work on the icing.  AH! I was a bit nervous...I had done my research and decided to go with the powdered sugar and milk combo...plus some vanilla exact for flavoring.

The base:

3 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

I used my kitchen aid standing mixer.  I'm not sure I'd been using a mixer in the past...which may have been leading to my previous downfalls as well.  To be honest, I can't remember if it came out too thick or too runny...but in either case, I know every time I had to tweak it.  **Please note, when tweaking, a lot goes a long way.** so I'd add more sugar to make my border or add just a touch of milk to make my "filling."

First up...the blue stars!

I did make the mistake of mixing in the food coloring INTO the mixing bowl.  Which meant I had to completely wash out the bowl when I was ready to move on to the other colors.  So, next time, I will always transfer the icing to a smaller bowl to mix the colors.

I first went and made the border for all the blue stars (a the few white ones w/ the blue border).  The border icing is the thicker consistency.  A few times it was still too runny, but for the most part, it did it's job and stood in place!  Once the border lost it's shiny lustre I could then fill it in...

(again...I in no way mastered it...but I was pleased with my improvement)

 I repeated the same border and fill process for the plain white icing...

and for the red...

A lot of people use squeeze bottles (like the restaurant style ketchup and mustard bottles but clear) for the icing.  I think this would have been great and helpful...however I didn't really look for them, so I didn't really find them :)  They would just give you more control of the flow of the icing then my rockin' awesome Ziploc bag method ...don't be jealous!

after letting all the cookies dry I could finally arrange them in the flag format...

Besides being an easy shape and design to start with, I actually had a reason for making an American flag cookie spread!





my friend Noah leaves this weekend to head to boot camp.  He will be joining the army to be a trombone player in the army band!  It's such an exciting opportunity for Noah and Anna.  Naturally, we had to have an all American send off party...Thus the star cookies...AND pico's fashion choice!

stay tuned for more highlights from Noah's party next week...

AND see what list item I cross off for October coming soon!