This is a simple, easy way to make and decorate sugar cookies for non-bakers, who are looking for a quick process to create and decorate cookies.
I hadn’t made sugar cookies for a very long time and my preschool age granddaughters wanted dinosaur and bird cookies. As a grandmother it is very difficult not to indulge your grandchildren, so I set out to make them sugar dinos and birds.
Sugar Cookie Ingredients
With the exception of a tin box full of old cookie cutters I was starting with nothing. A google search showed that cookie cutters were available locally, so armed with a list I headed out. The list included:
- Cookie Cutters
- Cookie Mix (box and tube)
- Cookie baking sheet
- Colored tubes of gel icing for decorating
- Eatable eyes
- Plain white icing
- Rolling pin
In total I spent about $30. The cookie cutters were $12 for a box of 101 different molds made by Wilton. They worked just fine.
Make Sugar Cookies
The easiest way to make the cookies is to use a tube of dough, like the Pillsbury tube of sugar cookie dough. Follow these steps to make cookie cutouts, or follow directions on the tube.
- In a bowl add 1/4 cup of flour to the mix from the tube
- Knead the flour into the mix
- Toss a little flour on a non-stick, flat surface, and roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Too thin and the cutouts break, too thick and the cookies are too chewy.
- To make it easier I divided the dough into 2 different sections. As I rolled each section flat I pressed the desired cookie cutter into the dough.
- Put the cut out shapes on the cookie sheet and bake according to directions on the tube, but probably about 10 minutes.
- After cutting out shapes there will be scraps leftover. Smoosh them together, roll them out and cut out more shapes. We got about 18 cookies from one tube of cookie mix.
- Put cookies in a safe place to cool before decorating.
Decorate Sugar Cookies
This is the fun part, unless you are the adult responsible for cleaning up. The really easy way to decorate your cookies is to buy a can of icing and a few tubes of different colored icing gel. I found some sparkle red gel, which was a big hit, along with purple and black. Total cost for all three different colors was about $5.
Find a clean, clear space and cover with parchment or wax paper. Having the icing and decorating gel close at hand and then lay down the cookies you are going to decorate.
With a knife I added a smooth layer of white icing over the top of the cookies. The girls used the tubes of gel to add their creative touches. They loved adding the eyeballs all over the cookies.
After clean up the cookies are ready to eat. The decorated cookies are sticky and won’t store very well.