Perfect sugar cookies

So a friend asked me to do some baking for her bridal shower, I of course jumped at the chance and probably took on a little too much with such a sort time limit but oh well! So these cute little sugar cookies were one of the things I chose to do for her shower. Nila was very excited about the whole thing and could not stop coming into the kitchen asking for "cake" so I guess the wedding cake look really worked out! 

So anyway! These sugar cookies are so good! They are soft and perfect and the royal icing I make has a wonderful glossy top and tastes so good! They are very addictive so be forewarned! They are also extremely easy to make and my kids definitely love them! So here's how to make them! 

First in the bowl of your stand mixer add the sugar and softened butter.

Put the mixer on medium and mix until combined.

Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl while mixing so everything gets combined well. 

Next add the vanilla and almond extract.

Then add the egg and baking powder.

Mix until everything is completely combined.

Now begin adding the flour in a cup at a time. Place the mixer speed on low or else the flour will get thrown out of the bowl.

Once everything is combined nicely remove from mixer and stir by hand to make sure everything is mixed well. 

Take out a bit of the dough and form it into a ball. (It is going to work best if you work it in your hands a bit to make sure the dough isn't too crumbly.) 

Flour your surface and top of the ball generously and begin rolling it out.

For these cookies I used circle cookie cutters but you can do whatever you want if you aren't planning on making little cakes. (I ended up using the large end of my icing tip for the top layer of the cookies, I started with a bigger one but wasn't happy with how the cookies looked once put together so I baked another batch of the small ones) I then laid the cookies out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and baked them at 350F for about 5 minutes. (It all depended on which batch of cookies I was baking, the really small ones took a lot less time to bake then the big ones so of all depends on the size of your cookie.)

Once they were done I left them out to cool completely on a wire rack.

While the cookies cooled I began making a batch of icing. I ended up making 6 or 7 batches to cover all my cookies but I also made 3 batches of cookies. First place the icing sugar in a mixing bowl.

Add in the almond extract.

Next you have to add in the corn syrup. But obviously this picture is not corn syrup, this is a great trick for anything that is really sticky. Spray a little Pam on the measuring utensil and whatever is on it will slide right off! 

You can see from this picture that the corn ship is just sliding off, which was really convenient since I was making so many batches so that meant less scrubbing of sticky dried corn syrup!  

Next add in the milk. Start with the smallest amount and add more as you go to get your desired consistency. 

If you want the icing to stay in place (which why wouldn't you??) it will usually be perfect with just the 1/8 cup of milk. You can test it by scooping some out and letting it fall back into the bowl, if the icing slowly melts back into itself then it's perfect. If it melts back to fast you need more icing sugar, if it's too slow you need more milk. 

Once you have finished the icing, take a plastic bag or piping bag and a small round tip.

If using a plastic bag, cut a small hole in the corner of the bag.

Push the tip through the corner and screw the adapter together.

Next take a cup and place the bag in it and begin filling it with the icing. 

Whenever the bag is facing down the icing will leak out so try and keep it upright. Also to make sure it doesn't harden it's good to wet a paper towel and wrap it around the tip when not using it. 

Now to the most time consuming part of the whole process, decorating! I first had to ice each layer of the "cakes" and let them completely dry. (It's best to let them dry over night) Once dried place a small dot in the middle of each cookie and put the other layer on top. The icing will end up acting like glue once it dries. 

These are the three layers all done. After this I placed little dots around each level to give the cookies a little extra. I also had left over buttercream icing from cupcakes I was making so I added a little pink flower on the top of each cookie. And since I changed my mind about the sizes of the cakes I had a bunch of bigger circles left over to so I used some black buttercream icing to make monogrammed cookies.

These cookies were such a huge hit and always are! They are so soft and taste so good and are good for any occasion! I hope you all enjoy these!