Bake and decorate sugar cookies

Decorating sugar cookies is mostly patience: a dough that holds its edges, cookies that are fully cool, and icing at the right thickness. Get those three right and the decorating is the easy part. It doesn’t have to look perfect to be good.

Set up first

Make the dough and bake the cookies the day before if you can. Then the evening is just icing, music and sprinkles. Decorating at a table with a few people works well, because you can share bowls of icing and trade colours.

Cover the table with parchment or newspaper. Set out the cooled cookies, small bowls of icing, spoons or small knives for spreading, and plenty of sprinkles.

Make a dough that holds its shape

A reliable cut-out dough: cream 1 cup (2 sticks) soft butter with 1 cup sugar, beat in 1 egg and 2 teaspoons vanilla, then stir in 3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bring it together with your hands.

1. Divide it into two discs, wrap them, and chill for at least an hour.
2. Roll one disc on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick.
3. Cut shapes and lift them onto a lined baking sheet with a spatula.
4. Chill the tray for 10 minutes. This stops the edges spreading.
5. Bake at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are only just golden.
6. Cool on the tray for a few minutes, then move to a rack until completely cool.

Cookies of the same thickness bake in the same time, so roll evenly.

Make two simple icings

Glaze. Stir 2 cups of powdered sugar with 2 to 3 tablespoons of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. It should be as thick as honey. Spread it with a spoon, or dip the cookie face-down and let the extra drip off.

Piping icing. Use the same mix with less milk, or royal icing made with meringue powder, so it holds a line. Spoon it into a piping bag, or a zip-top bag with a corner snipped.

Add colour with a few drops of food colouring, one drop at a time. The colour deepens as the icing sits.

Decorate

1. Outline the edge of the cookie with piping icing, if you want a clean border.
2. Fill the middle with glaze, nudging it into the corners with a toothpick.
3. Add sprinkles straight away. They only stick while the icing is wet.
4. For marbling, drag a toothpick through dots of a second colour.
5. Let the cookies dry flat, without stacking.

Some easy ideas:

• White glaze with silver or white sprinkles, for snow
• Piped dots for ornaments and snowflakes
• Two cookies sandwiched with icing between them
• Plain cookies dipped in glaze, then in sprinkles

What goes wrong

• The icing runs off. The cookies were still warm, or the icing is too thin. Cool the cookies fully and stir in more powdered sugar.
• The icing is too thick to spread. Add milk a few drops at a time.
• Colours bleed into each other. Let the first colour set for a few minutes before adding the next one beside it.
• The shapes spread and lose their edges. The dough was too warm. Chill it longer next time.
• The cookies break when you lift them. Roll a little thicker, or lift them with a wide spatula.

A few things that help

Use a small offset spatula or the back of a spoon to move icing, and wipe it between colours. A damp paper towel next to each bowl keeps the edges from drying out. If you have a few friends over, give everyone the same number of plain cookies and let them have free rein, then eat the ones that look wrong first.

Store and share them

Once the icing is completely dry, pack cookies in a single layer, or with parchment between the layers. Keep them in an airtight tin at room temperature for a few days. Undecorated cookies freeze well, and so does the dough, wrapped tightly.

If you’re giving them away, a simple tin or a box lined with parchment is all they need.

Make it a winter evening

Bake on the weekend, decorate on a weeknight, and ask a few people to bring their own sprinkles. If you want something bigger to build with the leftover icing, try a gingerbread house next.