Sugar cookies are easy to make at home when you start with a great sugar cookie recipe. To ensure success, bring all of your ingredients to room temperature. Sift dry ingredients before adding wet ingredients. Here is my favorite sugar cookie recipe.
Basic sugar cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream the butter and both sugars for two minutes on medium speed. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla. In another bowl, mix the flour and salt. Add the dry mix to the mixture slowly until all the flour has been incorporated. Place the dough in a bowl or plastic bag and refrigerate for an hour or more. Roll out dough on parchment-covered board to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out the cookies with your favorite cookie cutter. All cookie shapes of the same size should be baked together. Otherwise, the smaller cookies will burn before the larger ones are cooked.
Place your cutout cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden. Yield for this recipe varies depending on the size of cookie cutters you use.
Important cookie dough tip: Cookie cutters must be used together to cut cookie dough. This eliminates re-rolling the dough over and over again, which makes the baked cookie tough. Press the cookie cutter down into the cookie dough, then wiggle it around a bit to get a clean cut. Remove cookie cutter.
Flavoring fondant: Fondant can be flavored with concentrated caramel flavors to enhance the flavor. All it takes is a little caramel flavor kneaded into the fondant to add the desired flavor. Kids love the bubblegum flavor.
How to quickly decorate your baked sugar cookies with fondant: Use store-bought brands of fondant to quickly decorate your baked sugar cookies. To use the fondant out of the package, you need to cut it into smaller pieces and then knead it until it is pliable. Then you can put it all back together and knead it into a ball. Place in a plastic bag to prevent it from drying out. Scoop out a portion of the fondant and roll it out to about 1/8″ thickness. Use the same cookie cutter to cut out the fondant, then place the fondant cutouts on a sheet of waxed paper until completely cut.
Take a food-safe brush and some piping gel to paint the center part of the baked sugar cookie, and then apply the fondant cutout to the top. Gently smooth the fondant cutout over the baked sugar cookie so it fully adheres to the cookie. Set aside and repeat with the remaining baked sugar cookies.
To decorate the tops of the sugar cookies, you can use simple decorating tools or items you have in the kitchen that can create imprints in the fondant (forks, clean lace, or cake decorating tools). You can also add a thin layer of piping gel on top of the fondant and then apply sanding sugar on top of the piping gel and shake the cookie to remove any excess.
Once you have finished decorating all of the baked sugar cookies, you should allow the fondant to set before placing the cookies in cellophane bags or stacking them on a cookie sheet. Fondant generally takes 12-24 hours to set.
Check out the link below for how-to pictures and simple fondant decorating ideas for your sugar cookie.
https://indd.adobe.com/view/80d1c8cd-092e-4c03-b37f-941354d35b7c