Royal pain the the butt

So yesterday, once all the cookies were cooled (overnight), while James mowed the lawn I mixed up some royal icing.

I wanted to try the "flooding" technique that I have seen a lot since I started reading lots of blogs.

With my trusty royal icing recipe I forged ahead.

I've noticed that they are ALL different, some saying very little water, some saying more water. I went with the one that went with the cookies.

Royal Icing Recipe

Ingredients:

•1 lb. confectioners’ sugar, sifted
•5 tbs. merinque powder
•1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until smooth and creamy, 7-10 minutes. If icing is too thick, add more water. If too thin, beat icing 2 to 3 minutes more.

2. Color icing with desired food colors by blending a drop of coloring into the icing. Gradually blend additional drops until you achieve the desired color.

**Flow or Flood Icing: Best used for decorating sugar cookies. To achieve this thin, flowing icing, follow recipe above and continue to add water, a teaspoon at a time, until icing resembles the consistency of heavy cream. Squeeze bottles work best for decorating with this type of icing. Use to create lines, dots and other details as well as flooding in the base layer of your sugar cookies.

It had to go for about 10 minutes actually because I think there was too much water in the beginning. But, I got it worked out.
BTW, I had a 2 lb bag of sugar so I had to measure it out. We got this for our wedding:

And it is so great for measuring out flower/sugar. I think they are only 20 bucks (depending on which one you get) so if you would have a reason to use it at all, get one. It was extremely helpful to me.

So with the icing made I got out the gel colors that I had. These do color the icing better than anything else I've ever tried.

And it doesn't take much to do it to get colors that are just perfect.

James was still mowing the lawn so I figured I could outline all the cookies and by the time he was done they should be ready to decorate.

Here they are, waiting for their outlines

I really need to work on my piping skills. Seeing as I haven't done it in 3 years, hey, it could be worse. James saw all the cookies sitting out and he was OH SO EXCITED (or atleast he pretended to be) and helped me get the sprinkles out.

Waiting to decorate...

His came out really well. He is very artistic and made lots of interesting cookies.
About half way into the day, I noticed I made icing in the same colors as his shirt.

Oh, and the water drops on his shirt are from when he had to run outside to grab something from the freak rainstorm we had yesterday.
So, some of our interesting cookies...

They are so pretty. And delicious.

I HAD to use the new metallic sugars I got. They look so pretty, these photos don't even do them justice.

The margarita glass rejects, AKA UFO Cookies.

Artistic dog bones. A few are mine, but the really good ones James did. He's quite crafty.

I love these ones the most. The "salt" rim is adorable.

Mine is on the left, James's is on the right. That's right, we're crafty.

The ugliest cookies. We each had one.

Music music music...

Stars...

I wish I could get a better photo of this one (I tried, I tried) but it is so pretty. James decorated this one. Isn't he fantastic?

This entry is long, but I had to share.