Halloween Special: Halloween Sugar Cookies

Ingredients
Sugar Cookie: 

• Flour – 150gm +(Extra for dusting on the surface and the rolling pin)
• Egg – 1 large
• Butter – 100gm
• Sugar – 100gm
• Baking powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Vanilla Extract – 1 teaspoon

Royal Icing: (Adapted from Sweetopia)

• Icing Sugar -200gm
• Meringue powder -1 tablespoon
• Cream of Tartar – 1/2 teaspoon
• Warm water -45ml
• Vanilla – 1/2 teaspoon
• Food colour – black (or any colour of your choice)

Method
Sugar Cookie:

• Cream the butter and sugar until light and smooth. 
• Beat in the egg and vanilla. 
• Sift the flour and baking powder and mix till completely mixed. 
• Roll the dough up and chill it in the refrigerator for 30minutes to an hour. 
• Preheat the oven to 165 degrees celsius. 
• Roll the chilled dough on a well floured surface to the thickness of your choice. 
• Dip the cookie cutter in a bit of flour and cut the cookie dough using the cutter. 
• Transfer the cookies on to a baking sheet and bake for about 10-12 minutes. 
• Once baked, let it cool on a cooling rack.

Royal Icing:

• In a large bowl, whisk the meringue powder with warm water. 
• once completely mixed, add the cream of tartar and whisk well. 
• Sift the icing sugar into this mixture and with an electric blender, whisk for about 5-8 minutes, until smooth. 
• Add the vanilla and beat for a minute more. 
• This royal icing is piping consistency(3rd picture below) , which is the outline you draw for the cookies. For flooding (filling the outline) consistency add few drops of water (as needed). 
• Use 1/4th of the royal icing for the piping of the cookie, use another 1/4th by mixing it with black food colouring (this is for writing). 
• To keep the royal icing without hardening while piping or in room temperature, cover the bowl with a damp cloth.
• Pipe away text, shapes, scary images (all depends on your piping skills, mine still in amateur mode… and practice makes it perfect) Also you need steady hands. 
• Keep the piped cookies in room temperature for few hours to dry. 
• Once dry store in air tight container.