Decorated Sugar Cookies Ideas

Cookies; one of many pastries that can make you go weak in the knees. Delicious and easy to make, cookies are becoming people's favorite munchies, almost at par with donuts.

Derived from the dutch word 'koekje', meaning little cake, cookies have evolved from simple flat biscuits, to decorative treats; the perfect eye candy for those with a sweet tooth. A sugar cookie is a versatile biscuit, that can be used for different decorative purposes.

These are light, flat cookies with creative add-ons that range from the simple to the fancy. If you've never baked a cookie in your life, I can guarantee that you will be busy baking in the weekend. It's never too late to experiment in the kitchen and test that oven that's been waiting to bake.

We discuss ideas for decorating sugar cookies that will tingle your palette and set you on your way to cookie heaven.

The cookie monster from Sesame Street didn't love cookies for nothing. I'm sure he had a stash full of all kinds of yummy versions of the cookie besides his favorite chocolate chip one. As kids, some of us grew up watching the furry blue monster, probably wondering what cookies were.

Now that we know, we all turn into cookie monsters every once in a while. Cookie recipes over the years have been turned inside out to produce some of the world's yummiest concoctions, that people have come up with to make them more pleasant-tasting than ever.

Choose from the many types of cookies available, to try out ideas for cookie decorating, that you may have in mind.

● Refrigerator/Ice Box Cookies

After you have all your cookery utensils at your disposal, the crucial part of putting together all your ingredients for the cookie batter come into play. Remember, measurements are everything; if you were to mess up the measuring stage of your ingredients, you will end up disappointed with the end product.

Keep a good collection of measuring cups and spoons that will help you to not only measure your cookie additions well, but anything you put together in your kitchen.

• One and a half cup of granulated sugar
• One teaspoon of butterscotch extract
• Two teaspoons of baking powder
• A little over a quarter spoonful of baking soda
• One bar of butter
• Three cups of cake flour
• A helping of chocolate shavings/crispy balls of chocolate/chocolate drops
• Eggs

Beat the butter along with the sugar, eggs and butterscotch extract until the mixture is consistent and fluffy in texture. Fold in the baking soda, baking powder and cake flour until it has thoroughly meshed with the mixture. Keep it in the fridge until it turns stiff, preferably overnight. Grease baking sheets after the oven's been preheated to 350°F. These need to be baked for 8-9 minutes till they turn golden brown.

After you browse ideas for how to decorate a cookie below, you'll see that almost anything can be added to them for decorative purposes. Here are some ideas for decorating cookies that you can start off with:

Using cookie cutters that come in different shapes like stars, hearts, trees, smiley faces and so on are the perfect way to give your cookie gorgeous shapes. As a final touch, you can even use icing on your cookies for that heavenly finish. Frosted sugar cookies with colored sugar icing usually come in two kinds, namely buttercream (fluffy) and royal icing (stiff).

Here's How You Can Make...

All you need to make this easy topping for your cookies, is to get a hold of about 280g of icing sugar, and 120g of softened, unsalted butter. Using the back of a wide spoon, stir in the butter and icing sugar (a spoonful at a time), until the two ingredients take on a creamy finish, where the sugar disappears as it blends into the butter.

Add three drops of vanilla essence to really round up the flavor of your buttercream. Once it thickens and takes on that creamy look, dollop a portion of this onto your cookies once they're done baking.

For a slightly hardened topping to give you a good bite before you sink into a layer of crunchy biscuit, let's take a look at how to make an easy royal icing preparation from scratch. All you need is a teaspoon of cream of tartar, food coloring range (preferably gel based), 450g of icing sugar and about 3 egg whites.

Whisk the ingredients together using an electric or handmade whisk, making sure to slowly combine the ingredients without rushing the process. Add in more icing sugar for thickness, and drop in the colors last before topping off your cookie batch.

Be sure to experiment with decorating sugar cookies, with the different ways of making a cookie and not just one particular kind. It spices things up in the kitchen and adds a little something extra to your cooking experience. Bake away!

"Sometimes me think what is love, and then me think love is what last cookie is for. Me give up the last cookie for you." - Cookie Monster