Sugar Cookies

Its been just about more than a month, my mom came... days flew so fast, that its almost time to say good-bye to her. After she came I became one lazy bum.. I guess it will take some time for me to get adjusted to my normal routine.
Shopping and packing is all done, but I wanted to send something homemade for my dad and cousins back in India.... After a lot of thinking, I came up with Sugar cookies.
I never made Sugar cookies before and that too with frosting. I always feel that frosting cookies is an art... just like painting with all those colored icings and piping bags....
The cookies came out really well... and icing was not very bad either, but I guess I have to practice more :-)
The recipe source is from here.

What you need:

For Cookies:
All purpose Flour : 400 gms
Butter : 225 gms, unsalted, at room temperature
Granulated white Sugar : 200 gms
Eggs : 2, at room temperature
Baking Soda : 1 tsp
Salt : 1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract : 2 tsp

For Icing:
Egg whites : 2, at room temperature
Lemon Juice : 2 tsp
Icing Sugar : 3 cups

1. In a clean dry bowl sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
2. In an other bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until combined.
4. Now add vanilla extract and beat for 1 min.
5. Add the flour mixture, in batches and beat until you have a smooth dough.
6. The dough may be sticky and may come up the beater attachments, so beat at slow speed, scraping dough from the sides and from the attachments in between.
7. Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for about two to three hour, until firm enough to roll.
8. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
9. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
10. Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, take half of the dough and put the reaming half back in the refrigerator(because it is easy to work with small quantity of the dough)
11. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1 cm.
12. Making sure that the dough does not stick to the counter, keep turning the dough as you roll.
13. Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer to baking sheet. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to chill the dough and prevent from losing their shape while baking.
14. Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes (depending on size). Mine took exactly 8 mins.(just until the edges start to brown)
15. Remove from oven and cool them on a wire rack.
16. Enjoy them as it is or frost with icing.

For Icing:

1. Sift Icing sugar to remove any lumps.
2. In the bowl beat the egg whites with the lemon juice, with the hand mixer.
3. Add the sifted sugar and beat on low speed until smooth.
4. Add more sugar or water to get the right consistency.
5. Add food coloring, if desired.
6. The icing needs to be used immediately or put in an airtight container as it hardens when exposed to air.

How to Frost:

1. I made icing with 2 types of consistencies.
2. One little thick with which I piped the edges, and then with the icing of flowing consistency(lil thin) I filled the inside using a spoon.

Mom's Tips:
Using disposable piping bags is helpful when using more colors.
When frosting, let the edges dry, before filling with thin consistency icing.
I found this wonderful site which shows how to frost cookies, If interested have a look.