Easter Sugar Cookies with Naturally-Dyed Frosting

Fri, Apr 6, 2012

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The pastel colors of the buttercream frosting colored with natural dyes that I made last spring are perfect for Easter so I decided to use them again this year for my Easter sugar cookies. I used my Old-Fashioned Soft Sugar Cookie recipe for soft, melt-in-your-mouth cookies. I colored the vanilla buttercream frosting with beet juice, spinach juice, carrot juice and blackberry juice. My son loved yet another way to decorate Easter eggs!

Easter Sugar Cookies with Naturally-Dyed Frosting

Author: Itsy Bitsy Foodies

Recipe type: Dessert

Prep time: 3 hours 45 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 4 hours

Serves: 24+

The pastel colors of the naturally-dyed buttercream frosting are perfect for decorating Easter egg sugar cookies.

Ingredients

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3¼ cups flour

Buttercream Frosting

3¾ cups powdered sugar
½ cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp milk

Natural Dyes

Beet juice
Spinach juice
Carrot juice
Blackberry juice

Instructions

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Beat the butter on medium speed for 30 seconds.
Add the sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt and mix until combined.
Mix in the eggs and vanilla.
Gradually add the flour and mix until blended.
Divide the dough in half, cover each half with plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours.
Working with a small amount of dough at a time {and leaving the remaining dough wrapped in the refrigerator} roll out the dough on a lightly-floured surface to ¼-inch thickness.
Cut the dough into the shapes of your choice.
Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake the cookies at 375 degrees for 4-7 minutes or until the edges are just starting to firm up. They will continue to set as they cool so do not over bake them or let them brown if you want soft, chewy cookies.
Cool the cookies for one minute and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Frost and decorate them as desired.

Buttercream Frosting

Cream the powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and milk until a smooth frosting forms.
Divide the frosting into separate bowls to make the different colors.
Add a few drops of the different juice to each bowl to create your natural colors.
Adding the fruit/veggie juices will affect the consistency of the frosting so you can add more powdered sugar or reduce the amount of milk to compensate for the added liquid.
You can change the shade of color by adjusting the amount of fruit/veggie juice.
Decorate the sugar cookies as desired.