Sugar Cookies

Last week, I was dying to make sugar cookies. They really are my favorite..supposedly simple and easy to make. Yeah right. This year I tackled my fear of rolling and cutting out dough. These rolling pin bands made my life SO much easier. So, if you, like me hate to roll and cut out dough...try these. My cookies and pie dough will never be the same, thanks to these.

So, that challenge tackled, it was the decorating that stumped me. My friend, Katie, should get the assist on these (although, she may not want to admit it, seeing how they came out!), because I got the sugar cookie recipe from her blog (ok, try not to compare her FABULOUS looking cookies with mine...I'm still learning!). Which was STELLAR, by the way...best sugar cookie I've had..

So, for a week, I flooded Katie's inbox with requests for help with icing and decorating...I'm surprised she didn't block me! She was a great help, and suggested the right size tip for the outline (which I didn't use, sorry Katie! That's probably the reason they don't look like I want them to), found a royal icing recipe for me to follow (which was good!), and generally held my hand via email, so that I had the courage to make these...

They didn't turn out as well as I'd like...I couldn't get the icing to the right consistency, but, all in all, they don't look like a 2nd grader made them...maybe a 4th grader, so I'm moving up!

Thanks so much, Katie for your help in this one! I'm still learning, so I hope that next time I will do even better...