All credit for this cute idea goes to Giselle at Baking in Heels, which is where I found this great design. Sugar cookie recipe is mine.
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup powdered sugar
4-6 tablespoons milk
red and black gel food coloring
Directions
In mixing bowl, cream together unsalted butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Beat in flour, baking powder, orange juice and vanilla until smooth and well combined. Chill in refrigerator 2-3 hours or until firm enough to be rolled.
Preheat over to 400F. Roll out half of the dough on a well floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness (be careful to get the surface even, otherwise you will have oddly-browned cookies. Also, do not roll the dough to thin, otherwise you will have hard cookies when they come out of the oven). Cut with cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheet lined with silpat or onto parchment paper. Brush each cookie with a very light layer of egg yolk and sprinkle with a bit of one of the toppings. Repeat this with other half of the dough. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown at the edges. Cool on wire rack.
While the cookies are cooling, make your icing. Mix the powdered sugar and milk to consistency. Tint some red and some black. Frost according to the following steps (for photos, visit Baking in Heels): Outline head of sheep using black piping consistency icing and a #2 tip. Switch out tips to a #3 tip and pipe legs on the sheep. With flood consistency black royal icing fill in head of sheep. Allow to dry. After head is dry. Using white royal icing a little thinner than piping consistency add a dot for the sheep’s eye. I used a #2 tip for this. Then with a #1 tip pipe a small black dot on top of the white one. With red royal icing a bit thinner than piping consistency fill in the heart that is embossed on the cookie. If you are using a different cutter, simple make a heart in the center of the sheep cookie you are using. With white icing (a little thinner than piping consistency) add dots all over the body of the sheep. Leaving a space between the dots. Allow the dots to dry about 30-40 min before applying next layer of dots. Squeeze harder for larger dots and lighter for the smaller ones. I used a variety of sizes. Stay clear of the heart and the head/legs if they are not dry yet. Repeat adding layer of dots. Allowing them to dry 30-40 min before applying another layer. Do this until the entire body of the sheep is filled.
