Did you know that 2020 is a leap year? It means we have 29 days in February this year- which is great news for bakers like us, because it means one more day to decorate St. Patrick’s Day cookies, am I right? No one? Just me? Well, that’s okay. With Valentine’s Day in the rear-view mirror, there’s a lot to look forward to as the weather warms up and all the spring holidays get people excited for vacations and green grass and generally escaping the house after months of being a winter hermit. So let’s get decorating!
I’m an impulse buyer in places like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby, are you? I was there not too long ago and grabbed two packs of shamrock sprinkles without much of a plan for them, and figured they’d go into my cookie decorating hoard like everything else. But then I looked at them again and decided that they were too much fun to forget about and made it my mission to create several cookies that feature them for my St. Patrick’s Day posts. And so the Shamrock Sprinkle Series was born! You can click the tag at the top of this post to see others in the series as I blog about them in the coming days.
The Pots of Gold sugar cookie is a huge hit in my house. My girls love how big the cookie is and how ‘fancy’ it looks when it’s done. What’s great about decorating this cookie is that you need only two colors, a few materials, and just a couple hours to complete the entire thing, so it’s a good option if you need to create something on short notice for a party the next day, or if you just want to surprise that special leprechaun in your life. Everything you’ll need is as follows:
Materials Needed for Pots of Gold Sugar Cookies:
- Sugar cookies, baked and cooled (find my recipe at the bottom of this post!)
- Pot of gold cookie cutter, available here at Amazon
- Royal icing in several colors (find the recipe below and my newbie tutorial here if you need help!) The gel dye I love is available here at Amazon.
- Black at flooding consistency and a small amount at piping consistency
- Yellow at flooding consistency
- Gold confetti sprinkles for the coins, available here at Amazon
- Shamrock sprinkles for garnish, available in-store or online here at Michaels
- Optional: Cookie decorating toolkit, available here at Amazon
- Optional: Counter top fan to speed drying times (double the times listed if you don’t use one)
With all our materials in order, let’s get going!
Begin by baking your pots of gold cookies and letting them cool completely on a rack. When you’re ready to start, pick up your black royal icing with a #3 tip. Pipe the simple cauldron shape, going from right under the ‘gold’ shape on the left to the same spot on the right. Don’t worry if your line is a little bit uneven or crooked, because we’ll be covering it up later. Put your cookies in front of a fan for about half an hour to harden up.
When you’re ready to move on, swap the #3 tip for a #2 and make some fun scroll details on your pot. It doesn’t have to be the same as mine- do whatever you think would look nice! I do try to keep it simple because the cookies can look kind of ‘busy’ once done if you get too crazy on the details. Now let the cookies harden for about an hour longer. We want the icing to be nice and dry to stand up to handling and before changing to another color to minimize any color ‘bleed’ between the two.
Now it’s time to move on to the yellow royal icing, but we have some set up to do first. We’ll be finishing one cookie at a time from this point out, so prep your decorating station. Find a medium-to-large size bowl big enough that your cookie can sit flat at the bottom, and open up your gold ‘confetti’ sprinkles and pour them into a small bowl or ramekin for fast use later. Also open your package of shamrock sprinkles and have them close at hand for use.
When your prep work is done, flood the rest of the cookie shape with the yellow royal icing with a #2 tip. Put one or two small dollops of icing at the bottom of the pot, as well. As soon as you’re done flooding, place the cookie in the large bowl and pour the confetti sprinkles over the wet icing. Gently press the sprinkles into the icing to help them adhere, then gently shake the cookie over the bowl to dislodge any loose ones. If needed, place the cookie back in the bowl and pour over again to cover any bare spots. Press gently all around the top edges carefully to make sure the edges are covered.
Finally, we get to use the entire motivation behind this cookie- the shamrock sprinkles! These little guys are sturdy and heavy, so use two or three and press them firmly into the cookie while the icing is still wet so that they’ll get solidly glued down. Check for any bare spots you missed withe confetti and stick them there (that’s my favorite trick when I’m feeling lazy!). And with that, you’re done! I told you these were fast and easy!
So, did you get lucky, hit gold and have your cookies turn into a real treasure? Make sure to let me know in the comments, and to also ask any questions that you might have about this design! And if you like the green beer cookie you see in the above photo, keep your eyes peeled for the next post in the Shamrock Sprinkle series! Until next time, keep Thinking Spring- and happy baking!
Foolproof Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In bowl, mix together 3 cups of the flour and baking power. Set aside.
- In separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the extracts and the egg and beat until combined.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Dough will be crumbly.
- Press dough together with hands, and roll out on a well-floured surface. Cut shapes and place on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.
- Refrigerate baking sheet for at least 10 minutes.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, remove when cookie edges are just barely golden. Allow several minutes to cool on sheet before moving cookies to a rack.
Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 Tbsp meringue powder
- 4 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar sifted
- 1/2 tsp Karo syrup (optional)
- 1/8 tsp clear flavored extract (optional)
Instructions
- Combine water and meringue powder in a bowl and beat with mixer until frothy.
- Sift powdered sugar into the same bowl and mix to combine
- Add syrup and extract if desired
- Beat the icing for 4-5 minutes until it is glossy and holds a peak if the beater is turned upside down
Medium Consistency
- Continue to add water ½ Tbsp at a time until at desired consistency (icing should disappear into itself in about 5 seconds after being dripped back into the mixing bowl).
Flooding Consistency
- Continue to add water ½ Tbsp at a time until at desired consistency (icing should disappear into itself in about 3 seconds after being dripped back into the mixing bowl).
