Lemon Cut-out Sugar Cookies with Lemon Royal Icing
Who's in the mood for some lemon? These lemon cut-out sugar cookies with lemon royal icing will satisfy you. Let me just tell you, this lemon royal icing is amazing! In the July themed My Bakers Box I got a bikini cookie cutter and knew I had to make a yellow polka dotted bikini to go with my lemon theme.
I should also say this was my first successful cookie that I used royal icing on. I felt so confident that I nearly thought about making a youtube channel just to do some cookie decorating with royal icing. It was a close one except then I remembered that I'm not much of a talker. Maybe I could throw in some music instead? Ah well, it was a thought anyway.
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My family (husband) hammered these cookies. They didn't stand a chance looking all cute and polka dotted. It's so funny I can work for 4 hours getting the frosting to look semi-pretty and they can be enjoyed in 30 minutes. It's okay though, as long as I get my photos for the blog. I like to share all my goodies with you!
Lemon Cut-out Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 ½ cups salted butter room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 1 medium lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups all-purpose Flour
Lemon Royal Icing
- 2 tablespoons meringue powder
- 3 tablespoons water
- ½ teaspoon corn syrup
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon extract
- 2 - 3 lemon yellow drops
Instructions
Cookies
- In a large mixing bowl, add in the butter and sugar. Mix until the two ingridients are just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add in the zest of 1 medium lemon, lemon extract, and egg. Mix until combined.
- Add in the flour and mix on low until just combined.
- Lay down a piece of parchment paper on the clean work surface.
- Place the cookie dough onto the parchment paper.
- Either place of parchment paper on top or flightly flour the surface and roll out to cookie dough to the desired thickness. I recommend about ⅜ of an inch.
- Slip a baking sheet under the parchment paper and place in the freezer for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove from the freezer and cut out the cookies with the bikini cookie cutters.
- Place cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Place the remaining dough in a ball and roll back out. Place it back in the freezer for 15 minutes.
- Bake the cookies for 10 - 12 minutes or until done. The edges will start to be golden brown.
- Let cool completely and then frost with royal icing.
Lemon Royal Icing
- In a mixing bowl, add in the meringue powder and water. Whisk until it becomes frothy. I did it about 1 - 2 minutes.
- Add in the corn syrup, powdered sugar, fresh lemon juice and lemon extract.
- Mix on low until incorporated. Scrape down the sides and mix thoroughly.
- Set aside about ⅓ cup of icing. Place in a disposable bag.
- Add the lemon yellow gel paste color into the remaining icing. Stir to combine.
- Add the icing into a disposable bag with a #2 tip. You can use a slightly bigger tip, if you have one.
- Outline and fill the cookies in with the yellow icing.
- Cut a very tiny hole in the tip of the white icing bag. Immediately place little dots in the filled cookies. Tap the cookies to even out the frosting.
- Let dry about 30 minutes.
- Add any details after the icing has crusted to help it stand out.
Notes
Nutrition
(Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietitian for special diet advice.)
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The cookies were way too difficult to roll out and cut with cookie cutters. I tried taking half the batch, rolling it into a log, freezing for a short time, and then slicing into rounds and those came out way better.
The royal icing was also way too runny and a bit too lemony for my taste. I would try to leave out the lemon juice and use only 1 tablespoon of lemon extract next time.
Hi Belle- Sorry the cookies were tough to roll. Sometimes if the dough is mixed too much, it can get too firm. Try letting it rest in the fridge for a while to loosen the gluten. I'm glad the slicing method worked for you though! I'm a big fan of lemon so I like the fresh lemon juice on top of the lemon extract! Just a matter of personal preferences there I think! Good tips for other bakers though 🙂 Thanks!
I made the cookies which were fine but the icing is super runny. Should it be pounds of powdered sugar instead of 2 cups.
2 cups is correct but adding any extra liquid at all (even just a teaspoon more!) will make the icing runny. Add a little more powdered sugar if needed until the texture you are looking for is reached.
What about baking powder?