camouflage & u.s. army star cookies & royal icing recipe

I absolutely LOVE anything camouflage and when my cousin asked for Army themed cookies for her son's farewell this weekend, I jumped on the idea and I hope I didn't disappoint.

First I'd like to talk about the royal icing I use for my decorated sugar cookies and for my cupcake toppers. 

Royal Icing
6 oz. warm water
5 tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 lbs. powdered sugar
a couple of squeezes of fresh lemon juice

In a bowl of a stand mixer, with a hand whisk, mix your warm water & meringue powder until foamy. Add your cream of tartar and whisk for about 30 seconds. Add your powdered sugar to your foamy mixture, attach the whisk attachment, and begin to mix on low speed until the powdered sugar is absorbed. Increase speed to medium-high and mix your royal icing  until it's thick and creamy. Squeeze in some fresh lemon juice and mix thoroughly. At this point you can add more water to create your desired consistency. Thick for flood lines. Thin and runny for filling in. And somewhere in between for detailed work. Hard to describe and you'll just have to experiment with your icing to see how you like it. If you're planning on coloring your royal icing, divide into bowls and squeeze in your food colors. Mix the food coloring well and cover your bowls with either plastic wrap or damp paper towels. 

For creating your flood line, I like the icing to be a little thick. That way it doesn't go running off your cookie.

It's best to let your flood line dry at least an hour. 

Royal Icing Colors for Camouflage
Brown
Beige
Black
Green

To make the camouflage pattern, pipe random blobs or kidney shapes of one color onto your cookie. 

Repeat with another color; connecting shapes and colors together so that the camo pattern forms naturally.

Fill in any gaps with any of the camo colors.....

I was loving every minute decorating these!!!

Last and definitely not least, the U.S. Army star.

I piped a yellow flood line and filled it in white white royal icing. I then piped another yellow line on top of my flood line to give the cookies a little dimension. After the cookies were dry enough to pipe on (roughly 3 - 4 hours), I piped a very thin black line to finish the star.