Hello Kitty Sugar Cookies

Deborah Liu | Mommy School

We love cookie making with the kids. It has all of the fun of clay making, but without cluttering up the house with projects afterwards. Rolled cookies are an easy way to let your kid's creativity shine. It does take a bit of prep on your part, but the results are well worth it.

I adapted this Rolled Sugar Cookies recipe from All Recipes to reduce the sugar a bit and added a little cinnamon to give it more flavor. For the icing, I wanted to avoid egg whites and meringue powder, so I used this Royal Icing Recipe

Ingredients for Cookie

1 1/2 cups butter, softened but not liquid
1 cup of sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Ingredients for Royal Icing

2 cups of confectioners sugar
4 teaspoons of milk
3 teaspoons of corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Liquid Food Coloring (if using gel, increase the corn syrup to 4 teaspoons)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Have your kids put the butter and sugar in the stand mixer. Mix until smooth. Put the rest of the dry ingredients together and then slowly add it to the mixer until well blended. It should be firm but a bit sticky. Roll it out with a bit of flour on a flat, hard surface such as a large cookie sheet or cutting board.

Press the cookie cutter into the dough. If the cutter has an additional piece that cuts marks into the cookie, make sure to press that very lightly.

Make sure to cut all the way through and pull the cookies free. Lay them on an ungreased cookie sheet about 1.5" apart.

Bake for about 8 minutes or until they are barely browned.

In the meantime, prepare the Royal Icing. It is easiest to make in a blender. Just place all of the ingredients except the food coloring in and blend until well mixed. Take a little bit and drip it on the edge of your cookies. Make sure that it does not run off. If it does, it is too loose, and you will need to add more confectioner's sugar. When it is the right consistency, separate into cups and gradually add some food coloring to get the color you want.

Take plastic bags and put them over cups. Pour the tinted icing into the bags and tie them off with a hair tie or twist tie. Cut a tiny hole in the end of the bag to allow the kids to ice the cookies. Leftover Royal Icing can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.