Diamond Ring Lemon Sugar Cookie Cutouts

For the third post in my engagement party series, I am sharing the recipe and decorating tutorial for these adorable little engagement ring cookies that we made for the party! They are beyond cute for any wedding related activity and were definitely the hit of the party.

The thing that makes these cookies not only adorable, but also seriously delicious, is that the sweet flavor of a traditional sugar cookie is balanced out by tart lemon. The cookies themselves are my standard sugar cookie recipe with some added lemon zest. This recipe makes great cutout shapes since they don’t expand too much in the oven. The glaze packs a punch of lemon since the ingredients are just lemon juice, powdered sugar, and meringue powder. The meringue powder helps the icing to harden up faster and keep a clean shape when lining the cookies.

If you didn’t notice in the first sentence of the blog post, I said that, “we made” these cookies. This should really be a two person job. To be honest, these cookies take FOREVER to frost. You have to line the edges of the diamond in white, then the band in yellow, and then fill both areas in, finishing with another layer for the diamond shape at the top. My hands were hardcore cramping up by the end of it, so make sure to have a friend around to at least do some of the filling work!

Something that I did love, though, was using a Lekue DecoPen icing tool my parents had given me for Christmas specifically for icing. It is a little silicone bottle that can be refilled easily and tips can be swapped out if you change your mind on which size you want to use. So handy and so much easier than piping bags! (Piping bags are still my recommendation for normal frosting, however, since this tool is best for icing.) To note, this is in no way sponsored, I just loved it!

Engagement Ring Lemon Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Servings: 38-40 cookies
Time: 5-6 hours
Difficulty: medium
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Ingredients:

Cookies:
3/4 cup Butter
1 1/8 cup Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 Tbs. Lemon Zest
1 Egg
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 2/3 cups Flour

For the icing:
3 cusp Powdered Sugar
2 Tbs. Powdered Egg Whites or Meringue Powder
6 Tbs. Warmed Lemon Juice + more for thinning one batch
Yellow Food Coloring

1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.

3. Slowly add in the baking powder, salt, and flour. If it becomes too difficult to mix, take the dough out and continue adding the flour by hand.

4. Immediately place your dough on to a floured surface and roll out dough to 1/8 – 1/4″ thick. Use your engagement ring cookie cutter to create as many cookies as possible. Using a cap to an oil container or something similar, cut out the centers of the rings. Peel away the extra dough and carefully place the cookies on to a baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 8-12 minutes (a lighter sheet takes longer to bake), or until the cookies have just started to brown. Cool them on a wire rack until completely cooled.

NOTE: You may store the cookies in a tupperware container in the freezer for up to two weeks before frosting if you wish to prepare them ahead of time.

5. Make the icing by mixing together the powdered egg whites or meringue powder and warmed lemon juice in a bowl. Break up all of the powder clumps and wait 2 minutes. Then whisk them until foamy for about two minutes. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add in the powdered sugar. It should be about the consistency of tooth paste when you are done. Separate the icing into two batches. Add a little more lemon juice to one of the batches to thin it out to the consistency of honey – this will be our flood icing and the original batch will be our border icing. Again, split both icings into two batches and use yellow food coloring to make one yellow batch of flood and border icing and leave the other sets white. Cover all of the bowls with plastic wrap until ready to use so that they do not crust up.

6. To decorate the cookies, start with your border icing. Pour the white border icing into a piping bag (or a similar piping tool) with a small round tip and line the outside of the diamond. Then pour the yellow border icing into a bag with a small round tip and outline the ring band. Next, use a clean paintbrush to paint the white flood icing into the center of the diamonds and the yellow flood icing into the middle of the ring band. Once I was done filling in the cookies with flood icing, I went over the top of the diamond again with the white border icing to create the diamond pattern.

NOTE: I recommend getting a friend to help with this to cut down on time! Megan took all of the cookies from me as I finished the borders and filled them in with the flood icing. She felt artistically competent enough for this task, as she usually shy’s away from anything she think she might mess up!

The cookies should be allowed to dry completely before transporting, which is about 4 more hours.

Recipe by Bunny Baubles Blog