1. With a stand mixer prepare cookie dough, cream sugar and butter until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
2. Add eggs and flavoring.
3. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl and add to butter mixture. Mix well.
4. Divide dough in half and place between two sheets of parchment paper to roll into desired thickness, 1/8 to 1/2″.  Repeat with the rest of the dough.
5. Put the rolled dough including the parchment paper on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes or longer.  Your dough will be chilled and ready to cut and bake with no wait and no added flour! Repeat the process with scraps after cutting cookies.
6. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Let cool on rack.

Royal Icing Instructions

1. Sift confectioners sugar in large mixing bowl fitted with paddle attachment.
2. Add remaining ingredients, beat on low speed until smooth and creamy 8 minutes.
3. If icing is too thick add more water, a teaspoon at a time.  I too thin, beat icing 2-3 minutes longer.
4. Color icing with desired color, I used red red for high heel cookies.  Gradually add food coloring gel a little at a time for desired color.  Keep in mind, red will become darker as it sits.  If wanting white,  add bright white food coloring gel so frosting is white and not creamy white.

How to Flow or Flood Icing

To achieve a thin flowing icing, continue to add water, a teaspoon at a time until icing resembles the consistency of heavy cream.  Squeeze bottle work best for decorating with this kind of icing.

Decorating Cookies

• Step 1: Outline outside edge of cookie (this could be the whole cookie, or perhaps just certain parts depending on the look you are going for).
• Step 2: Flood in outlined area by using a squeeze bottle or piping bag with small tiny  1/8″ opening. Create back and forth brush-like strokes while squeezing out icing. Use tool pic or toothpicks to help spread icing into to corners or edges.  Small brush strokes works best.  Dip tool end in wet frosting use small stirring motion while keeping the pic in the frosting but not touching the cookie, then move it slowly in the desired location.
• Let cookies dry (30 minutes) or…
• Step 3: Apply a separate color of icing onto the wet flood for a wet-on-wet technique. Some fun ideas to try are: polka dots, stripes, and swirls.

Wet flood is for details you want to add to cookies.  This is more 3 dimensional effect.  Use toothpicks to drag frosting details or a pic tool.  

Add sparkling sugars, confetti’s on wet royal iced cookies if desired.