Ingredients
- 225g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- Pinch sea salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
Royal Icing:
- 1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
- 1 large egg, whites only
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Food colouring
- Sprinkles
Method
- Preheat oven ro 180C fan forced.
- Line two large cookie trays with baking paper.
- Attach the paddle attachment to a KitchenAid stand mixer. Add the butter and sugar and turn on a low to medium speed. Beat until light and fluffy, followed by adding the egg and the vanilla extract. Beat further until well combined.
- In a seperate bowl combine all the dried ingredients. Turn the stand mixer on low and slowly add the dry mixture to the butter mixer. Beat until the dough comes together.
- Divide the dough in half and cover. Roll out one half of the dough in-between 2 sheets of baking paper until it is roughly 1cm thick. If you are working on a hot day, it is helpful to place the rolled out dough in the fridge for 10 minutes until it is firm and easy to manage.
- Using different size star cookie cutters, cut out each cookie. Using a thin spatular, gently transfer each cookie onto the pre-lined tray.
- Place in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow too cool for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Repeat the process for the other half of the dough until all cookies have been cooked, and allow your cookies to cool completely prior to icing.
- To make the royal icing; combine the icing sugar, egg whites and lemon juice into a clean KitchenAid mixing bowl, attach the paddle attachment to the stand mixer. Beat on slow speed until the icing is smooth and the consistency of toothpaste.
- Add the food colouring of your liking and mix together.
- Transfer the icing into a piping bag with a small piping nozzle attached. Pipe the cookies and sprinkle over with sprinkles.
- To build the Christmas trees, layer up the cookies starting with the largest one as the base. Use a little of the icing as glue to help stick them together.
- Store in a sealed container.
