In the past, I’ve made myself a “creative agenda” on weekends where I have downtime. It usually consists of projects that I’ve been wanting to try, but are totally not important in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes, when I would do this, I would end up not enjoying the activity I had so looked forward to doing, because it would suddenly feel more like a “to do list” instead of a “just for fun” activity.

Well, on Sunday afternoon, I had a sudden urge to do some holiday baking, so I did. And I have to say it was a lot more fun than when I spend time checking creativity off my to do list. And I’d say the result was pretty fun! Not to mention, I had some lucky coworkers on Monday morning.

{Sorry for the office iPhone photo…}

I’ve tried a few sugar cookie recipes over the years, and I have a few that I regularly go to. The one I used this week comes from Tidy Mom’s Halloween Cookie post. I cut the recipe in half and made 16 large cookies. They are Vanilla Almond Butter Cookies, and are similar to my other go-to recipe from Bake at 350. I used the same Royal Icing recipe as last time, also from Bake at 350.

People make royal icing sound so difficult, but it’s actually incredibly easy. The hardest part is taking the time to actually decorate the cookies. And I don’t have a very steady hand, so it will definitely take some practice…

I very highly recommend rolling out your dough between two sheets of wax paper. It’s MUCH easier and less messy than throwing flour all over your kitchen.

I have a full set of Christmas Cookie Cutters from Crate & Barrel, but it doesn’t look like they have that particular set anymore. I love these huge cutters though!

I use a pastry bag with a very little whole in it to outline the cookies. I know I probably need tips for my bags, but whatever. A hole works! 

Then, I thinned out the rest of my icing with a couple of tablespoons of water – just until they are the consistency of syrup. Then I use those cheap little plastic squeeze bottles you see in the picture. They were like, $2 at Michaels. You “flood” the cookies and spread the icing around a little with a toothpick.

Once the icing hardened, I used some of the original icing in piping bags to make the designs. Like I said, not the steadiest hand…but it will come with time, I hope!