Italy Cookies
Today is another of my friends' birthdays! Yay! So many birthdays in April. But that means more baking! And as you can probably guess from the title of this post, I made Italy cookies!
The cookies that I used were the chocolate sugar cookies from the Korea cookies. (Update: Everyone really liked the chocolate cookies! They were all like "Elissa! These are sooo good!". So see, it wasn't just me who liked them! You should really try them. Or let me make them for you!) Since the recipe is already here, I won't bore you by talking about those. Instead, I'll bore you by talking about royal icing! Yay! Just one more thing about the cookies, they don't spread. Unlike other sugar cookie recipes that I've used, these really keep the shape of the cookie cutter.
So for the royal icing for these cookies, I used the Antonia74 recipe. In my limited royal icing making experiences and vast blog reading experiences, I like this recipe. It's easy and that's always good so that I don't get confused. Usually, I'm a total stickler for the rules and therefore like following recipes exactly as written. But this time, I went out of my comfort zone and did something totally crazy! I didn't measure the powdered sugar! I know, I know. I can hear the collective gasp. But I rather liked not measuring the sugar. See, when I was planning out what all I was going to make for these cookies, I thought that a half recipe of royal icing would be sufficient. So I got to making the icing. But once I had the liquid part all mixed up and was ready to add the sugar, I realized that I had followed the recipe. Exactly. The correct measurements. I had made a whole recipe amount of liquid. So I decided to just make a whole recipe so that I can have half empty containers of beautifully colored royal icing for the rest of my life. Oh joy.
The last time that I made royal icing, I measured the sugar exactly to the written measurements and, guess what? It was soooo thick. Like so thick I couldn't really move the mixer-thick. Like so thick the mixer started making a burning scent-thick. And I thought that that probably wasn't supposed to happen. This time, though, I went totally crazy and just poured the sugar little by little into the liquid. At first, I didn't know how well it would work, but it turned out really well! Other people have said that you should dump in enough sugar so that it's really thick and then thin it out. I say that's stupid and a waste of powdered sugar! I just dump in enough that it fits the consistency that I'm going for and thin that out instead of breaking my mixer.
Wow, that was long! I think you've endured enough of my rant for today! Now on to the fun part, the cookies!
The first thing that you do is put down the basement icing. Make a circle and then fill it in. I just did that filling in with a spatula like you would frost cupcakes if you didn't want to make them uber-fancy and use a tip.
Next, get your red (or green, I just did red first so that's how I'll be explaining it) icing and make a 3/4 box. Like a backward C but with sharp edges. Am I making any sense at all? Probably not.
Then fill that in like so. But before you fill it in, make the last side of the box. I don't know why I didn't just make a box in the first place, but you can do that too if you don't feel like being complicated like me.
And do the same for the other side (green for me, but you can do the red second if you want).
Let the red and green sit and settle for a tad (probably 10-20 minutes, enough time that they won't run into the white) (you can wash your tips or whatever during this time!)
Now that the red and green boxes have set, make a white box between them and fill that in. Now you can add any details that you want! Yay!
Royal Icing Recipe (from Antonia74):
6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
1 Teaspoon vanilla
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar
1: Mix the warm water with the vanilla.
2: In a bowl or cup, pour the meringue powder into the warm water. Whisk until frothy and thickened.
3: Add the cream of tartar and mix again (about 30ish seconds, I probably didn't do it that long).
4: Pour in the powdered sugar and mix with the lowest speed with your mixer for 10 minutes until thick and creamy (I definitely did not do this! I poured in the sugar little by little, probably 1/2 cup amounts, but I don't know since I didn't measure it. I kept my mixer going as I poured it in (it's a hand mixer) and did not have it on the lowest setting. Also, I only mixed until it looked good. You'll know when your icing is good, you shouldn't need to mix for 10 minutes.)
5: Cover the bowl with a damp towel while you aren't using it so that the icing doesn't crust and dry out (It will if it's left uncovered).
You can tint the icing once it's mixed up. This recipe makes a lot of icing so I would suggest halving it if you don't need that much. Luckily, the chocolate cookie recipe made 42 so I can frost all of those. I'll probably still have some left over, though.
The cookies that I used were the chocolate sugar cookies from the Korea cookies. (Update: Everyone really liked the chocolate cookies! They were all like "Elissa! These are sooo good!". So see, it wasn't just me who liked them! You should really try them. Or let me make them for you!) Since the recipe is already here, I won't bore you by talking about those. Instead, I'll bore you by talking about royal icing! Yay! Just one more thing about the cookies, they don't spread. Unlike other sugar cookie recipes that I've used, these really keep the shape of the cookie cutter.
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| Pre Bake |
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| Post Bake |
The last time that I made royal icing, I measured the sugar exactly to the written measurements and, guess what? It was soooo thick. Like so thick I couldn't really move the mixer-thick. Like so thick the mixer started making a burning scent-thick. And I thought that that probably wasn't supposed to happen. This time, though, I went totally crazy and just poured the sugar little by little into the liquid. At first, I didn't know how well it would work, but it turned out really well! Other people have said that you should dump in enough sugar so that it's really thick and then thin it out. I say that's stupid and a waste of powdered sugar! I just dump in enough that it fits the consistency that I'm going for and thin that out instead of breaking my mixer.
Wow, that was long! I think you've endured enough of my rant for today! Now on to the fun part, the cookies!
The first thing that you do is put down the basement icing. Make a circle and then fill it in. I just did that filling in with a spatula like you would frost cupcakes if you didn't want to make them uber-fancy and use a tip.
 |
| This picture look familiar? |
Next, get your red (or green, I just did red first so that's how I'll be explaining it) icing and make a 3/4 box. Like a backward C but with sharp edges. Am I making any sense at all? Probably not.
Then fill that in like so. But before you fill it in, make the last side of the box. I don't know why I didn't just make a box in the first place, but you can do that too if you don't feel like being complicated like me.
And do the same for the other side (green for me, but you can do the red second if you want).
Let the red and green sit and settle for a tad (probably 10-20 minutes, enough time that they won't run into the white) (you can wash your tips or whatever during this time!)
Now that the red and green boxes have set, make a white box between them and fill that in. Now you can add any details that you want! Yay!
 |
| Make sure that your boxes are all the same size... |
Royal Icing Recipe (from Antonia74):
6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
1 Teaspoon vanilla
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar
1: Mix the warm water with the vanilla.
2: In a bowl or cup, pour the meringue powder into the warm water. Whisk until frothy and thickened.
3: Add the cream of tartar and mix again (about 30ish seconds, I probably didn't do it that long).
4: Pour in the powdered sugar and mix with the lowest speed with your mixer for 10 minutes until thick and creamy (I definitely did not do this! I poured in the sugar little by little, probably 1/2 cup amounts, but I don't know since I didn't measure it. I kept my mixer going as I poured it in (it's a hand mixer) and did not have it on the lowest setting. Also, I only mixed until it looked good. You'll know when your icing is good, you shouldn't need to mix for 10 minutes.)
5: Cover the bowl with a damp towel while you aren't using it so that the icing doesn't crust and dry out (It will if it's left uncovered).
You can tint the icing once it's mixed up. This recipe makes a lot of icing so I would suggest halving it if you don't need that much. Luckily, the chocolate cookie recipe made 42 so I can frost all of those. I'll probably still have some left over, though.
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