Daisy Cookies - Pretty Flower Cookies with Royal Icing

These daisy cookies make really pretty flower cookies. I used a lemon sugar cookie base which is absolutely easy to work with - the ingredients are basic, and the dough is easy to mix and roll and cut. Not forgetting off course, the deliciously rich butter flavor with a hint of refreshing lemon taste that makes this daisy sugar cookie recipe simply the best.

The daisy flowers are piped in royal icing. And the recipe I provided here is made using fresh egg white (check out both recipes here - one that uses fresh egg white and another that uses meringue powder). To match the cookie flavor, I have added some lemon juice into my royal icing, so I got sweet and tangy icing that matches the hint of lemon in the cookies themselves.

These daisy cookies have a soft and crumbly texture and last well too.

How to Make Daisy Cookies

There are 3 parts to making these daisy cookies. The first part is shaping and baking the base flower cookies, the second part is decorating them with piped daisies and the third part is returning the frosted flower cookies back to the oven for a short baking time to set the royal icing.

Ingredients

These are the ingredients that went into the daisy flower cookies:

• Plain flour
• Butter
• Caster sugar
• Egg yolk
• Grated lemon rind
• Salt

Mixing the flower cookie dough

• These daisy flower cookies were mixed using the creaming method. I started with the butter (softened to room temperature) and castor sugar and mixed them until they became creamy before adding in the egg yolk.
• Unlike cakes, when making cookies, the creaming process should not be too long. It should only be long enough until the sugar and butter appear creamy and there is no need to wait until it becomes light and fluffy. Too much mixing is often associated with cookies spreading too much during baking so it is wise to take note of this. Beating the egg yolk in should not take too long either. Plus only one egg yolk is used in this recipe, so that should be done within a minute.
• The salt and lemon rind go in after that (beat for about 10 seconds) followed by the flour. 
• Immediately after adding the flour, the dough would still appear a little dry. That is perfectly normal for these flower shaped cookies. Turn the dough onto your workspace and give it a short knead to gather all the dough pieces together. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest in a covered bowl for about 10 minutes. This resting time allows the dough to come together and makes it easier to roll and cut.

Shaping and baking the cookies

• The next process is to shape the flower cookies. If you do not want to roll and cut the cookies, you can always take about tablespoons full of cookie dough and form them into balls before pressing them flat into round discs.
• I prefer to roll and cut my cookies. And for easier handling and to prevent the cookie dough from sticking to the workspace and rolling pin, I place the dough in between clean plastic sheets and roll it with the guide of 2 dowel rods to ensure the thickness of my cookies is consistent. You can also roll the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper if you wish. I then cut my flower cookies using a scalloped round cutter.
• Since the cookies were rolled on a plastic sheet, lifting them to the baking tray was pretty easy. And since there are no leavening agents added to the cookie dough, the cookies do not rise during baking, which then means they need not be placed too far apart from each other on the baking tray.
• Bake the daisy shaped cookies for 10 minutes at your normal cookie baking temperature. I baked mine at 160 degrees Celsius but it may vary from oven to oven. Once done, let the cookies cool down to room temperature before decorating. You can even make the cookies a day or two in advance before decorating them.

Making the royal icing

• Decorating the cookies is the fun part of making these pretty flower cookies. I used royal icing made using fresh egg white and these are the list ingredients that went into making it.

1. Powdered sugar (sifted)
2. Egg white
3. Lemon juice
4. Yellow food coloring

• When making royal icing, it is always important to make sure all utensils that are used for mixing are absolutely grease-free. Otherwise, the egg whites will not whisk well and you will end up with runny royal icing.
• The process starts with the whisking of the egg white in a clean bowl until it becomes frothy. After that, powdered sugar should be added in small portions while the whisking continues. It is also a very good practice to sift it before adding to the egg white as powdered sugar tends to be lumpy. Small lumps of sugar getting stuck in your piping tip when piping can be a sheer cause of frustration. 
• I have also chosen to add a little lemon juice into my royal icing and the taste is a perfect match to the cookies themselves. And this was added after all the sugar has been added into the whisked egg white. 

Piping the royal icing flowers on cookies

• Since the daisy flowers I piped on the cookies were white and yellow, I removed about a quarter of the icing into a small bowl and added yellow food coloring to it. I filled it into a piping bag fitted with round tip number 3 and filled the remaining white into another piping bag fitted with petal tip number 104.
• These are the tools I used to decorate the daisy sugar cookies:

1. Petal tip 104 & round tip 3
2. Disposable piping bags
3. Piping tip coupler

• Once the baked flower cookies have cooled down, you can start to decorate them with the piped daisy flowers. Start with the white icing fitted with the petal tip for the daisy petals. In piping the petals, make sure the wider end of the petal tip is pointing upwards and the narrower end is pointing towards the center of the cookies. Do these petal piping in 2 cycles as it is easier to space them out consistently that way.

• Once the petals are done, use the yellow to pipe the flower centers. For added texture, start with a medium-sized dot in the center and then add tiny dots of yellow around the initial yellow center. 

Finishing touches

• And finally, since I used fresh egg whites in the royal icing, I returned the cookies to the oven after all the piping is done and baked them for another 2 minutes in a preheated oven.  You can skip this step if you want but since I know my cookies will last for at least a couple of days, I decided to bake them a little so that the egg whites are thoroughly cooked.
• Remove the iced flower cookies from the oven and cool them on a wire rack before storing them in an airtight container.

Like this daisy cookies recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out:

• How to Make Buttercream Daisy Cupcakes
• Flower Birthday Cake - Circle of Daisies
• Easy Floral Cupcake Decorating
• Christmas Sprinkle Cookies - Pretty Festive Treats
• All Butter Shortbread Bars
• Pink Gerbera Daisy Wedding Cake with Fresh Flowers
• Lemon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full, printable version of my pretty daisy cookies recipe:

Daisy Cookies - Pretty Flower Cookies with Royal Icing

These daisy cookies are very pretty flower cookies. Learn how to make these easy butter cookies and decorate them with royal icing daisies.

5 from 5 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Daisy Cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Decorating Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Yield: 40 cookies

Author: Priya Maha

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Metric - US Customary

Ingredients

Cookies

• 225 g plain flour
• 125 g butter
• 125 g castor sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon lemon rind grated
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Royal Icing

• 150 g powdered sugar sifted
• ½ egg white
• ¼ teaspoon lemon juice

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Cookies

• Grate lemon rind and keep aside.
• In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg yolk and continue beating until well incorporated.
• Next, add salt and grated lemon rind and beat again for a few more seconds.
• Finally, add flour and beat for another few seconds until the flour is well distributed. Turn the dough onto a clean surface and knead briefly until it comes together. At this point, the dough will still be a little dry. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest in a covered bowl for about 10 minutes.
• To form the cookies, take a handful of the dough, place it in between clean plastic sheets or parchment paper and roll to your desired thickness. I use the guide of 2 dowel rods to ensure the thickness of my cookies is consistent. Cut the cookies out using a round cookie cutter. I used a scalloped round cutter but you can use a plain round cutter if you don’t have a scalloped one.
• Gently lift the cut cookies and place them onto a lined baking tray. Since the cookies do not rise during baking, you need not place them too far apart from each other.
• Bake the cookies at 160°Celsius for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and cool them on a wire rack.

Decorating the Cookies

• To make the icing, beat the egg white until it turns frothy. Add the sifted powdered sugar, a little at a time and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Add in the lemon juice and give the icing another couple of seconds of beating.
• Remove about a quarter of the icing into a small bowl and add yellow food colouring to it. Mix well and fill it into a piping bag fitted with round tip number 3. Fill the remaining white icing into another piping bag fitted with petal tip number 104. Pipe the daisy petals with tip 104 and finish off the decoration by piping yellow centres for the daisies using the round tip 3.
• Return the decorated cookies to the preheated oven for another 2 to 3 minutes until the icing sets. Remove cookies from oven and let them cool completely before storing.

Video

Notes

Make sure the bowl and beaters used for making the royal icing are absolutely free of any traces of grease. I always rinse my bowl and beaters in hot water before using them to beat egg white.

Also, be sure to sift your icing sugar first to remove any lumps. These lumps can block your piping tips when piping.

Baking time and oven temperature may vary. I would suggest that you follow the baking temperature you normally use to bake cookies.

Please also note that the cooking time will ultimately depend on the thickness of your cookies as well as the size.

The baking time and temperature provided in this recipe are based on my oven setting.

Nutrition

Calories: 71kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 38mg | Potassium: 6mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 85IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 1mg

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And that's my pretty daisy cookies recipe for you.

Happy Baking 🙂