Sugar Cookie Name Cards Recipes

SUGAR COOKIE PLACE CARDS

Steps:

• Put about 1 cup of the royal icing into a small bowl. Add water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it's the consistency of toothpaste. Add 1/4 cup of this icing to a pastry bag fitted with a number #3 pastry tip; this will be your outlining icing. Divide the remaining icing between two bowls and color each in desired color using food gel colors. Add each to a pastry bag fitted with a coupler and a leaf tip.
• Thin the remaining 2 cups royal icing with water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it's the consistency of shampoo or a very thick gravy. Put into a squeeze bottle.
• Outline the cookies: Hold the piping bag with the outlining icing securely in your hand. Apply a little pressure to squeeze out the icing and touch it to the edge of the cookie where you want to outline. Gently but evenly begin to squeeze out the icing, keeping the tip about 1/2 inch above the cookie, using that slack to guide the icing as if it were a string. Make nice, straight lines, touching down the tip to anchor the icing at the comers, making your way around the cookie to outline it completely. Once all the cookies are outlined, let the icing set, up to 2 hours.
• Flood the cookies: Holding the squeeze bottle very close to the surface of a cookie, squeeze out thick, squiggly lines across the surface of the cookie inside the outlined border to cover it almost completely. Use a toothpick to gently spread the icing and guide it to the edges of the border and to fill in any little holes, giving the cookie a gentle shake to settle the icing. The icing should be smooth and even across the surface of the cookie. Use the tip of a skewer to pop any bubbles at the surface. Repeat with the remaining cookies and let the icing set, about 30 minutes.
• Use the colored icings with the leaf tip to pipe a decorative border around the edges of the set white icing. Place the tip just above the cookie surface and squeeze gently, slowly releasing pressure while you pull away to make a leaf shape.
• Switch out leaf tips to #2 or #3 small round tips. Working with the same technique you used for the outline of the cookie, by anchoring the icing and then manipulating the "string" to make shapes, write the desired names onto the surface of the cookies. One easy and impressive lettering technique is the cursive print "Blend." Do a pretty, stylized capitalized first letter in the cursive style and then write the remaining letters in a lower-case print style. The first letter might be a little tricky, but you only have to worry about one! It adds drama, while the rest of the letters are very simple and easy to do.

PLAYING CARD COOKIES

Steps:

• In large bowl, beat butter, egg and flour with electric mixer on medium speed (or with wooden spoon) until well mixed. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.
• Heat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with cooking parchment paper. On floured surface, roll dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using playing card as template, cut dough into rectangles; place on cookie sheets. Reroll dough and cut additional rectangles.
• Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. (If only 1 cookie sheet is available, cool 10 minutes between batches.) Cool cookies completely, about 30 minutes.
• In medium bowl, beat meringue powder and cold water with electric mixer on medium speed until peaks form. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until soft peaks form, about 1 minute. Spoon one-third of icing into decorating bag fitted with fine tip; pipe outline of playing card onto cookies. Let stand to harden, about 30 minutes.
• Thin remaining icing with water until it becomes a spreadable consistency. Spoon icing onto each cookie, spreading with back of spoon to fill in space inside outline. Let stand to harden completely, about 30 minutes.
• Draw card details with edible markers.

SUGAR COOKIE NAME CARDS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients together and mix with an electric mixer until blended. Gradually add the dry stuff to the wet stuff until combined thoroughly.
• Roll dough out on lightly floured surface until about 1/8" thick. Cut into various shapes using cookie cutters or even just cut with a knife into rectangles.
• Use a straw to cut out a hole in the cookie. Be sure to leave enough room around the edges of the hole so it's not too thin.
• Place shapes on a cookie sheet and bake for 5-7 minutes. When you remove cookies, you may have to poke the straw through the hole again to re-open it.
• Transfer to a cooling rack.
• Decorate name card with icing/decorator gel and tie a ribbon or string of yarn through the hole to hang the card.