"The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies"

I have found it! Not that I looked for that long (thank goodness for allrecipes.com). When I think of sugar cookies I think of dry, hard, stale cardboard-like cookies. Sad, huh? Well, no more. After reading a few recipes I came across "The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies" recipe, and I must agree with its name: they were delicious! Soft and moist and thick. Mmmm. And they kept their cookie-cutter shape very well.

I think some of the tips that made them work so well were: 1. I have fresh baking powder, 2. I kneaded the dough briefly before I rolled it out, 3. the cookies were only baked for 6 minutes at 400 degrees. I'll have to remember those tips.

This was my first time trying to make royal icing. I've always been a buttercream girl and avoided royal icing because of the far inferior flavor. Butter just makes everything better. Well, I'm learning some good tips to royal icing. It definitely holds its shape better. It's easier to clean. I can be more flexible with the texture just by adding more water. I started out with too thick of frosting that had an ugly texture (see red and white stripes below), but then I added too much water and had the smooth, but runny frosting in the pink stripe.
I'm confident I can get it right if I have the time to work it out. I was kind of rushed with these.

I still like buttercream better.