Welcome to our Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies link up! For the next two weeks, join us every day and add your favorite cookie recipe for that day’s theme. Please follow Lisa and Lindsay and check out some new blogs! Happy baking!
For day two, we’re sharing decorated Christmas cookies. I love this standard buttercream recipe for frosting cookies. The corn syrup gives the icing a nice glossy shine, and you can tint it any color. I know a lot of people splash vanilla extract in their buttercream, but I personally love almond. It gives the icing a nice flavor that pairs with the vanilla in the sugar cookies.
To tint the buttercream, I bought the Wilton Color Right food coloring set and love it. The colors are more of a gel, and they’re really concentrated. I opted for white (plain without food coloring), red, green, and blue. As with all food coloring, you have to add more red food coloring to get red instead of pink. I did have to make green as this kit doesn’t include a green bottle.
Maybe one of these days I’ll learn how to make royal icing. I have a bunch of pins and photos saved of gorgeous decorated Christmas cookies, but I’ve never given royal icing a shot.
Buttercream frosting
- Total Time: 10
- Yield: 4 cups 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) of softened butter
- 4 cups of powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp of corn syrup
- 1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- Cream butter with a mixer.
- Add sugar in small amounts to maintain smooth texture.
- Beat in the corn syrup and almond extract.
- Keep chilled until needed.
Notes
Depending on how long you chill the buttercream, you will need to let it come up to temperature before you use it. Cold buttercream is really flaky and won’t spread well.
- Prep Time: 10
Twelve Days of Christmas cookies link-up: Recipe index | Sugar cookies | | Nut cookies | Traditional cookies | Chocolate cookies | Peanut butter cookies | No bake recipes | Non-cookie treats | Candy cookies | Family favorites | Gingerbread | Santa’s cookies
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Jen says
I love frosted cookies, I have been slacking this year on my baking.