Wedding favour cookies recipe

A beautiful bride and a smart groom - these professional-level cookies are bound to impress.

This duo of wedding favour cookies make the perfect little present for guests at a wedding or a hen do. They are not difficult to make, though the icing requires a little bit of patience to get right. You could make grooms for male guests and brides for female guests, or let people choose their own. Add your own weddings colours if you prefer, to really personalise them. This recipe makes three grooms and three brides, but it's easy to scale up if you're making them for more people. Alternatively they are a thoughtful gift for a couple who have just announced their engagement.

Ingredients

For the sugar cookies dough:

• 200g caster sugar
• 200g unsalted soft butter
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 400g plain flour, plus more for dusting
• For the decoration:
• About 600g royal icing
• Black food colour
• 2 cookie cutters made in the shape of prom dresses (about 12.5x10cm/5x4 inches) and 3 in the shape of tuxedos (about 7.5x11cm/3x41⁄2 inches) made using 1 recipe quantity of sugar cookie dough (see below).

Method

1. To make the sugar cookies: In the electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar until well mixed and just becoming creamy in texture. Don’t overwork it, or the cookies will spread during baking. Beat in the egg until well combined. Sieve in the flour and mix on low speed until a dough forms. Gather it into a ball, wrap it in cling film and chill it for at least 1 hour.
2. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead it briefly. Using two 5mm (¼-inch) guide sticks, roll it out to an even thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut out the desired shapes and, using a palette knife, lay these on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Chill again for about 30 mins and preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
3. Bake for 6-10 mins, depending on size, until golden brown at the edges. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Wrapped in foil or clingfilm, they will keep well in a cool dry place for up to a month.
4. To decorate the cookies: Divide the icing between two bowls, about 250g in one and 350g in the other. Mix the 250g with black food colour. Add a little water to both bowls until the icings have reached soft-peak consistency. Fill one piping bag with each colour.
5. Snip a small tip off the bag with black icing and pipe the outline of each groom in a steady smooth line. Do the same with the white icing on the bride cookies. Cover the bags with cling film or damp cloth to prevent the icing drying out.
6. Dilute the remaining white and black icing with a few drops of water to a runny consistency. Fill one piping bag with each colour and flood the centres of the cookies in the appropriate colours, being careful not to overflow the sides. Flood the tuxedo centres with white first, let dry and then flood the black part.
7. Once dry, pipe the detail on each cookie, using the soft-peak icing then let it dry.

Top tips for making these wedding favour cookies...

You can add a little spice or zest to the flavour of these cookies if you like - half a teaspoon of mixed spice or the zest of half a lemon. You can also use lemon juice in the icing instead of water for an extra zesty kick.

Once you've mastered brides and grooms, why not make pale blue page boys and pink or peach bridesmaids as well? If you don't have the appropriate cookie cutters, you can draw a template yourself and use it to cut the shapes out with a sharp knife.

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