Rainbow Tie-Dye Decorated Sugar Cookies

A few months ago, I wrote about how I caught the cookie decorating bug, and here's my second attempt at decorating cookies with royal icing: rainbow tie-dye decorated sugar cookies!

Three of my eight nieces love peace signs and tie dye, so what could be better than sending them each a platter of rainbow tie-dye decorated sugar cookies?

I sent two of my nieces birthday platters. Each platter has a mix of flowers, peace signs, name cookies, and their ages.It was also my first attempt at piping letters with royal icing, and it wasn't as scary as I imagined. 

Here's a close up of the larger flowers. The final piping icing and sanding sugar really made these cookies come alive.

And then one of my little ones didn't have a birthday, but I know how much she loves everything tie dye, so I sent her a mini-platter of rainbow tie-dye cookies. It turns out that the small flowers in the set below are my absolute favorite.

For an amazingly straight-forward and detailed tutorial, head on over to the cookie genius known as Sweet Sugar Belle. Not only does she show you how to use the wet-on-wet royal icing technique, but she also details all of the supplies you need to accomplish the effect. She is a true inspiration to newbies like me!

After making seven different colors of royal icing, I was inevitably left with a few decorating bags full of icing. To ensure they wouldn't go to waste, my little guy decided to practice using piping bags.

The result was an enormous heart cookie with some artistic "spaghetti" decorations. She dubbed her technique "spaghetti" because she said that the mound of piped icing looked just like a delicous pile of pasta!

 Here's what I used to decorate the cookies:

Flood Icing in the following colors :Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet

 Piping Icing and Course Sanding Sugar  in the following colors: Red, Purple, Blue, and Green

 

Sugar Cookies

Adapted from The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1 – In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt.

2 – In the bowl of a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.

3 – In a separate bowl, crack the egg and beat it with the vanilla extract.

4 – Add the egg mixture to the butter and sugar. Mix until combined.

5  – On low speed, add the dry ingredients to the wet ones.

6 – Allow the dough to rest for a few minutes. There's no need to refrigerate the dough. Roll it out to a 1/4 inch thickness, and cut out desired shapes. 

7 – Bake in a 400 degree preheated oven for eight minutes. Rotate the pans at four minutes.

Yields about 2 to 2 1/2 dozen three-inch cookies.

 

Royal Icing

Slightly Adapted from the Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle

Ingredients:

4 lbs of confectioner's sugar

3/4 cup of meringue powder

1 1/2 cups warm water

6 tbs vanilla extract

Instructions:

1 – Mix the confectioner's sugar and meringue powder in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Mix on a very, very low speed to prevent the dry ingredients from flying out of the bowl.

2 – Combine the warm water and vanilla extract in a measuring cup.

3 – Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk on low until the liquid is absorbed into the dry ingredients. This should only take a few minutes.

4 – Increase the mixer speed to medium high, and whisk for about 7 to 12 minutes until the icing is fluffy and stiff.