How to Make Super Cute Lemon Face Cookies

What you will learn:
In this instructable, you will learn how to make these Super Cute Lemon Cookies! These lemon cuties are sugar cookies coated with sweet and lemony icing. Their cute faces make them extra fun to eat!

The video contains the steps to decorate the cookies.  You can use your own sugar cookie recipe, or use the recipe which I've included below. More photos of these cute cookies are on my blog!

What you'll need to decorate the cookies:
1. Lemon shaped sugar cookies- There are many lemon-shaped cookie cutters available online. You can also make your own cookie cutter. 

2. Three (3) piping bags fitted with #1 decorating tips

3. Royal icing in yellow, black, and pink (recipe below)

4. Yellow flood icing  (included in royal icing recipe below)

5. Paint brush

6. Edible Markers - I used black and pink edible markers

6. Stencils - Here's a link to the illustration I used to make the faces. Print it out to the scale you think looks the supercutest for your cookie, tape it on top of a sheet of acetate, and cut out the shapes with an Xacto knife to make your own stencil.

Recipes
I used my good friend, Patti Paige's, sugar cookie recipe with my own lemony royal icing to top the cookies.

Patti Paige’s Sugar Cookies (Makes: 40-45 cookies)

Ingredients:
24 ounces all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ pound butter, at room temperature
2 ¼ cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions:
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs and vanilla together in a container. With the mixer on low speed, pour out container one egg at time until incorporated. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Add the dry ingredients to the mixture, about 1/4 at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. Pour the dough on a sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap and chill the dough in the refrigerator for about an hour, or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Roll the dough to out to about 1/8 inch thickness on a generously floured surface.

If the dough is sticky, you can work in small sections of dough while leaving the rest in the refrigerator. Flour the top of the dough as you roll it out to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin.

Cut the dough with a lemon-shaped cookie cutter. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and place the cookies on the sheet. Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Let the cookies cool completely before decorating.

Lemony Royal Icing

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1 lb Confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons lemon extract (Nielsen Massey Pure Lemon Extract is a fav.)
4 drops Electric Yellow or Lemon Yellow Food Coloring

Instructions:
Beat egg whites in a mixer for about 20 seconds, until they are liquid with some froth. With the mixer on low, slowly add all of the confectioner’s sugar, a cup at a time. Add the lemon juice and extract and continue mixing until smooth and incorporated.

Scoop out 1/2 cup of royal icing to color pink for the cheeks, and another 1/2 cup to color black for the face. Thin with lemon extract as needed. Color the rest of the royal icing with 4 drops of yellow food coloring, or more, as needed.

This recipe is good for lining the cookies, and piping faces.

To thin the icing for “flood” icing, add one egg white to the yellow royal icing and beat it in a mixer until incorporated, or,  thin with up to 1/4 cup of lemon juice in he yellow royal icing until the icing is a maple syrup consistency.

Thank you!
Thank you for reading this. This is my first instructable! Leave a comment and let me know what you think. ^_^
I hope you enjoy making these delicious (and super cute) cookies!