Lovebird Cookies Recipes

Steps:

• Mix together some of the royal icing with peach or rose food coloring until desired shade is reached. Transfer to a small squirt bottle with a wide tip. Leaving 1/4-inch border, outline the cookie with colored icing. Draw several zigzags across entire surface of the outlined area. If necessary, use a toothpick to spread evenly.
• Mix together some of the royal icing with violet and rose-pink or red food coloring until desired shade is reached. Draw 3 lines horizontally across the body of the bird. Using a clean toothpick, lightly drag across the lines five times, alternating directions, to create a "feather" pattern.
• Use the fondant hearts or Sweethearts candies to form eyes, the gumdrops or Cupid Corn to form a beak, the red hots or jellybeans for the feet, and place a candy heart in the center of cookie. Place a small dot of royal icing in the center of each eye. Arrange the candy confetti or dots to form the pupil of the eye. Let cookie dry completely before packaging.

Steps:

• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
• Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs and lemon juice. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Divide dough in half; flatten each half into a disk. Wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees with racks in upper and lower thirds. Let one disk of dough stand at room temperature just until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes. Roll out dough between two pieces of plastic wrap to 1/4 inch thick. Remove top layer of plastic wrap. Cut out cookies with a 5-inch owl cookie cutter. Transfer cookie dough on plastic wrap to a baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to freezer, freeze until very firm, about 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet from freezer and transfer shapes to baking sheets lined with nonstick baking mats. Roll out scraps, and repeat. Repeat with remaining disk of dough.
• Bake, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.