Back to School/Teacher Appreciation Sugar Cookies

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Our teachers do so much! When you want to show them your appreciation, why not make them an edible gift!

How To Get Started

There’s lots of cute school related cookie cutters out there so to keep it simple, we’ll focuses on decorating three shapes. You’ll need a pencil cookie cutter or the amazon version which is slightly longer in length, a backpack, and a glue bottle.

To pipe on the royal icing, you’ll need some piping bags and a pair of scissors to cut a small whole across the tip on the bag.

How to Gift These Cookies

Gifting sugar cookies is such a sweet gesture (pun intended). It’s a gift that’s made with love and that’s why it’s so nice to present the cookies in a pretty (and practical way).

Placing fully dried sugar cookies in cellophane bags tied with ribbon which will look nice and will help to protect the cookies from cracking. (For cookies that are 4 inches or smaller, I purchase the 5×7 inch bags.)

If you want to present cookies in a cute gift box, these boxes hold 4 cookies. Add crinkle paper, sugar cookies, and then tie the box with twine or ribbon!

Step 1: Bake Sugar Cookies

I baked one batch of my easy soft cut-out sugar cookie recipe.

Start by creaming the butter and sugar together. Mixing in an egg, vanilla, salt, and flour. Lightly knead the dough together, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Once chilled, roll the dough to 1/4-inch thick. Cookies that are slightly thicker will be soft in the inside and slightly crisp on the outside.

Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, place on a baking tray with parchment, and bake!

Step 2: Royal Icing Prep

While the cookies cool, prepare royal icing. For all your questions about royal icing, check out my easy royal icing recipe blog post.

My favorite food dye is Americolor food gel because it’s very vibrant and a little goes a long way! The colors used are: AmeriColor Super Black, Lemon Yellow, Ivory, Sky Blue, Orange, Wedgewood, and Avocado.

To dye, separate the frosting into bowls, mix in the dye with a rubber spatula, and then pour into piping bags. For white icing, you scoop it straight into a piping bag. Follow the chart below for measurements.

COLOR	GEL COLOR
White
Light Pink (1/4 cup)	1 tiny drop ivory
Orange (1/4 cup)	1 drop orange
Yellow (1/3 cup)	1 drop lemon yellow
Green (Backpack) (1/4 cup)	1 drop avocado
Blue (Backpack) (1/4 cup)	1 drop wedgewood
Black (1/4 cup)	2-3 drops super black
Blue (1/4 cup)	1 drop sky blue
Grey (1/4 cup)	1 tiny drop black

Watch the Video on YouTube!

How to Decorate School Themed Cookies

Glue Bottle

Pipe a blue rectangle in the center and fill in. Dry for 5 minutes. Use white icing to pipe around the border of the cookies, then fill in. Dry for 5 more minutes.

Outline the top of the glue bottle with orange icing and fill in. Then, once that has dried, add little lines to the cap. Finally, write the word glue in black icing in the center!

Pencil

Start by outlining the cookie about one inch up from the round end with yellow icing. When you reach the top, make an up and down motion, then fill it in with icing.

Use the grey icing to pipe a small grey rectangle and fill in. This is the metal band that holds the eraser which is also called the ferrule (which I just learned writing this post!)

Use light pink icing to pipe on the eraser and the top of the pencil. Make sure to leave a little space for the graphite tip.

Use black icing to pipe a little triangle for the pencil tip.

Use grey icing to pipe three horizontal lines over the dried grey icing. Avoid letting the lines touch or they will blend together. Then use yellow icing to pipe three vertical lines.

Backpack

To make a simplistic backpack, use blue icing to outline the cookie, but when you reach the top, pipe a small curved line to make the strap. Fill in the cookie with blue icing and then let this dry for 5 minutes.

Then add a slightly rectangle shape to make a pocket and fill in.

Pipe a curved line on top, add a bow and a zipper! Repeat this design using green or yellow icing.

The school themed sugar cookies are ready to gift/eat/share!

How Long do Iced Cookies Need to Dry?

It can take between 12-24 hours depending on the weather but it also depends on how humid your kitchen is. It can also depend on how runny your icing was when piping. To be sure the cookies are fully dry when packaging or serving, I recommend letting the cookies dry overnight.

Storing Iced Sugar Cookies

• Sugar cookies can be stored in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 1 week
• Don’t stack cookies on top of each other as they are still delicate even when dried. But if you have to, lay parchment paper in-between each layer.

If you recreate this, tag me on Instagram #alissasbakeshop – I’d love to see!

RECIPE CARD