While we were on a vacation recently, my daughter went to a bakery and asked for a minion cookie. The cookie looked gorgeous and it tempted not only my daughter but the kid in me also. So we bought it and the first bite into it was really bad! The cookie did not taste even half as good as it looked. I was so disappointed. It was the same disappointment that I felt when I ate a bite of Twiggies in Singapore and then planned to make twinkies at home.

For this recipe I went back to my trusty sugar cookie recipe that I use to make Christmas cookies and decided that the decoration has to come from the icing instead of me trying to buy funky cookie cutters to please my little ones. And a quick peek at the internet told me that my options were royal icing and fondant primarily. My choice of icing is always royal icing. It feels healthier than a buttercream icing, dries up a bit on the top, making the cookies easy to transport and keep and most of all, the kids just love it! Of course the fact that it is easy to color and decorate with also helps :)

Minions are always a rage with the kids but the new favorites on the block are Snowgies - those cute little walking snowballs from Frozen fever. Now my decorating skills are not quite perfect so I was a bit nervous about trying it out but decided to go ahead nevertheless. We are trying to promote a healthy lifestyle at home and that does not mean the kids don't get to eat the stuff they like. It just means I make a smaller batch than I used to earlier. So we have the cookies for 1-2 days max instead of those that lasted for an entire week. And I did make these cookies in 2 batches spread 2 weeks apart. which means the kids get to enjoy them twice without me feeling guilty about feeding them too many sugar and butter laden treats!

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets/cookie sheets lined with parchment.

3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Royal Icing

Ingredients:

2 egg whites

2 cups sifted confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp lemon juice

Directions

1. Beat egg whites in clean, large bowl with mixer at high speed until foamy (use only grade A clean, uncracked eggs). Gradually add sugar and lemon extract. Beat at high speed until thickened.

2.Add colors as desired and use a spatula to spread the icing or fill piping bags with the desired colors.

3.Spread the icing on the cookies only when the cookies have cooled completely.