Emoji Cookies - DC Girl in Pearls

We’re kicking off Monday morning bright + early with a MAJOR sugar rush courtesy of Hayley, the talented baker behind House of Crumbs. She generously spent Saturday teaching me the miracle-worker that is royal icing to whip up some Valentine’s Day cookies. Whether you love or hate Valentine’s Day, I think we can all agree her Emoji designs are pretty amazing!!! They’re so cool I kinda feel guilty for eating them. Only kinda because the cookie itself is incredibly tasty.

Hayley began baking in college as a stress reliever and recently decided to turn her passion into House of Crumbs. I mean, how great is that name?!?!

Just scrolling through her Instagram is enough to make your sweet tooth crave a treat. From cupcakes to cookies, Hayley’s business isn’t short of cute confections! I really can’t comprehend how she doesn’t eat all these treats herself.

Hayley asked me what I’d like to try making and immediately I responded: ROYAL ICING!! I’ve wanted to learn about royal icing but was pretty intimidated by the instructions. Not to mention the fact I couldn’t find meringue powder for the life of me at any DC grocery store (looking at you, Social Safeway). Hayley loved my idea to make Emoji cookies for Valentine’s Day and it was game on.

Saturday morning, I arrived at her home with a bag of confectioner’s sugar and a rolling pin in one hand and a bottle of Prosecco in the other. I mean, I had to make myself somehow!

We had a great time chatting as we rolled out the dough + made several batches of cutout heart cookies, Valentine’s Day envelopes and, of course, huge circles for the Emoji faces. Then, it was Royal Icing Time and I quickly reached for more Prosecco. This isn’t a fire drill, people.

Hayley uses Antonia’s Royal Icing recipe and I have to say, watching her prepare the icing, it didn’t look nearly as intimidating (read: impossible) as I thought it would be. The big thing to remember is to keep a damp kitchen towel or paper towel over the bowl(s) of icing as you work so the icing doesn’t harden.

We used piping tips to create an outline on the cookies and frost the small hearts. Saturday was a BIG day for me baking-wise because I have never worked with piping tips. My first couple of tries looked pretty rough but thankfully, I ate those cookies so the evidence would be destroyed. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

The #1 tip is to tilt the piping tip so that the icing follows the tip. As I worked, I constantly (and silently) reminded myself about this and noticed an improvement immediately.

I frosted the yellow circles onto the cookies but let Hayley the pro take the wheel to bring the Emoji faces to life. I don’t want to play favorites but I love how the kissy-face Emoji turned out!

Which one is your favorite? And don’t forget to check out Hayley’s House of Crumbs for your daily sugar fix!

Royal Icing Recipe

Ingredients

¾ cup of water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/4 pounds of confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

5 Tablespoons of meringue powder

Directions

1. Start with the wet ingredients! Pour the vanilla extract into the water followed by the cream of tartar and meringue powder. Whisk together until foamy at the top.

2. Place the confectioners’ sugar into a large mixing bowl and then add the wet ingredients. Mix for 10 minutes, we used the Kitchen Aid stand mixer’s paddle attachment. You can tell the icing is ready when you remove the paddle and a stiff peak formed on it.

3. Royal icing dries extremely quickly when exposed to air so once your icing is ready cover it tightly with plastic wrap when not in use. Because we used several colors on these emoji cookies, we divided the icing into several small bowls and then added the different food colorings, stirring to combine. Be sure to use food colorings that are oil free! Oils will break down the royal icing {Insert Sad Emoji Here}