Easter Sugar Cookies {Part 1}

Last month at work we had a "creative cookie contest". Each participant was to submit a creative cookie. This challenged me to finally make and decorate with, royal icing. I scoured the internet for recipes, tips, and techniques, and ultimately landed back at my favorite go-to dessert blog, Annie's Eats! I saw that she had a fabulous tutorial on sugar cookies and royal icing. I was sold. Little did I realize that these cookies were going to take a lot of TLC to get completed. The baking part was easy (although a bit time consuming). It was the decorating part that was the difficult part. That's why I've decided to make this a 2-part post. One on the cookie itself and the other on the royal icing and decorating! 

Pictured above is the mess I was left with and the beautifully baked and cut sugar cookies. 

Source: Annie's Eats

Prep: 20 minutes 

Cook: 8-10 minutes

Serves: 40

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1-1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp salt
• 2-1/2 cups sifted flour

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 min. *Cookies should not brown. 

3. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields roughly 40 cookies.