Frosted Sunshine Butter Cookies

              Just in time for summer!

                                 I love the lemon frosting in this recipe.

                                                     Why? 

                It tastes great. It's smooth. It spreads easily. It dries nicely. 

These are easy to make but a bit labor intensive. Here's how to make it easier:

Day 1:

Cookie dough

Bake cookies

Prep candies

Day 2:

Make frosting

Frost cookies

Decorate cookies

How to:

Cookie dough

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

2 1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

Grated peel of half a lemon

1 teaspoon frozen lemonade from concentrate (thawed)

Cookie Decorating

Pretzel sticks (half a bag)

6-8 drops of yellow food coloring

Gummy fruit for sunglasses 

Gummy rope or licorice strings for the happy smile. Cut to an 1" long

Lemonde Icing

3 3/4 cup sifted powder sugar

3 tablespoons lemon meringue powder (sold in a box)

6 tablespoons frozen lemonade from concentrate (thawed)

Cookie dough

Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer. Add egg and beat again.

In a separate bowl, add flour, salt & lemon peel. Stir. Then mix into the butter mixture.

Stir in lemonade then refrigerate for 2 hours.

Roll dough on floured surface at 1/8 inch thickness. Using a 3" round cookie cutter place cookies on a greased baking sheet. Arrange pretzel stick around cookies to resemble rays, pressing lightly. I used 7-10 sticks per cookie. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly brown on 350 degrees.

Cool on a wire rack.

Lemonade Icing

Beat all ingredients in an electric mixer on high speed.  Adding additional lemonade concentrate as needed. Spoon or spread icing onto cookies.

Decorate with fruit slices (the type I used were too thick so I cut them in half). Add gummy rope for the happy smile.

Recipe Source: 101 Cookie Recipes. Publications International, LTD.