Magic Wands

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Directions

1 Bake the cookies and let them cool completely. Prepare the Royal Icing. Keep the icing covered with a damp cloth.

2 Prepare the colored icing: approximately 1 cup light pink, ½ cup medium pink, ½ cup neon pink.

3 To prevent breaking when decorating, hold the cookie, not the lollipop stick. Spread a thin layer of colored icing over the entire cookie. Immediately pour white or pink sanding sugar over the top or dip the cookie into a bowl of sanding sugar, pressing gently to adhere. Shake or dust off any excess sugar.

4 Place 2 tablespoons of each color icing into separate pastry cones. Cut a small hole at the tip of each pastry cone. Pipe dots or lacy borders around the edge of each cookie, write the initials of the birthday fairy, or make a design of your own. Let dry overnight.

5 Tie a bow with long trails around the handle of each wand.

Plain+simple Pretint the cookie dough with a few drops of pink food coloring. Cut out with a star cookie cutter and sprinkle sanding sugar on top—no need for royal icing.

Sugar Cookies

This basic sugar cookie dough is strong enough to be cut into any shape, and the cookies are durable enough to stand up to a lot of decorating. Make mask-shaped cookies for your Halloween party, a cookie card for the birthday boy or girl, pirate faces for your little buccaneer, or magic wands for your fairy princess.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Have all ingredients at room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer at medium speed, cream:

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
²?³ cup sugar

Add and thoroughly incorporate:
1 extra-large egg
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

On a piece of wax paper, sift together:
1¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix until the dough comes together.

Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

On a lightly floured board, roll the chilled dough out to ¼ inch thick. Slip parchment paper under the rolled dough and transfer it to a half-sheet pan. Chill for 30 minutes. Cut out shapes (see below).

If making magic wands: Cut out stars using a star cookie cutter (2 inches to 3 inches across; larger stars need longer handles). Arrange the stars 1 inch apart along the long sides of the cookie sheets. Carefully insert lollipop sticks into the hollow created between two points of the star about ½ inch deep.

Royal Icing

This amazing icing is the “glue” that holds gingerbread houses together and is the colorful frosting that you find on decorated cookies. You can tint it, pipe with it, spread it with a spatula, adhere candies or sanding sugar to it, or thin it with water to create smooth flooded designs (see pages 144–45).

Yield: approximately 4 cups

In a large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whip attachment, whip to stiff peaks:
¼ cup meringue powder
½ cup cold water

Add and mix at low speed with a paddle attachment, until combined:
4 cups (1-pound box) confectioners’ sugar

Continue mixing at high speed for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the icing is stiff.

Add and mix on low speed until combined:
½ teaspoon strained fresh lemon juice

Cover the bowl with a damp cloth while you are working with or coloring batches of icing, or immediately place it in an airtight container or a pastry cone; otherwise, a hard crust will quickly form as it dries.

Note: If you are making a gingerbread house or other assembled three-dimensional cookies, I recommend adding an extra tablespoon of meringue powder and an additional cup of confectioners’ sugar. This will firm up the frosting, making your structure even more stable. —Liv