If you're in the mood for a fun, colorful baking project that’s both delicious and visually stunning, then fruit-shaped sugar cookies with all-natural food coloring are the perfect treat! 

These cookies are sweet, soft, and flavorful, and best of all, they’re decorated with a burst of colors made entirely from nature’s pantry. In this post, I’ll guide you step-by-step through making the cookies from scratch, then show you how to create those vibrant hues without artificial food coloring using Chefmaster Natural liqua-gel© food coloring.

Ingredients:

Sugar Cookies:

1 cup / 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup (212g) granulated sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

3 to 3 1/2 cups (380g) all-purpose flour (the amount of flour you use may vary based on egg/butter types or altitude)

3 Tbsp (30g) cornstarch

1 tsp (8g) salt

2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp butter extract

1/2 tsp (2g) baking powder

Royal Icing:

2 lbs. powdered sugar

3/4 cup warm water

5 Tbsp Chefmaster Deluxe Meringue Powder

1 Tbsp clear vanilla extract

2 Tbsp corn syrup

Chefmaster Natural Liqua-gel© Food Coloring

Tools & Utensils:
Stand mixer (with both whisk and paddle attachments)
Flat Spatula
Parchment paper
Large Baking sheets
Piping Bags
Bowls
Spoons
Scissors
Cookie Scribe or toothpick (optional)

Preparation:

To make the cookies:

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt in a separate bowl and set aside.
2. Using a paddle attachment, beat your butter and sugar on high speed for 2 minutes until creamed together.  The time it takes may be less or more here. The color will lighten and become a pale yellow. Try to avoid over-mixing at this stage.
3. Add your egg, vanilla, almond, and butter extract until just barely combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl in. Note: you can substitute or add flavorings at this step if desired.
4. Beat in the flour mixture to your wet ingredients a 1/2 cup - 1 cup at a time until the dough starts to form. Once all the flour is combined, the texture should not be sticky (but will be soft) and should form a ball easily. If it is still sticky to the touch, add a bit more flour a tablespoon at a time. Humidity and weather can affect your flour amounts.
5. Form dough into a ball and split it into 2 equal parts. Roll your dough balls between pieces of parchment and chill in the fridge for a minimum of an hour (and up to 12 hours). This is a recommended "development chill" process to let the ingredients settle together.
6. Preheat oven to 375°F degrees and prepare your baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mats.
7. Take your rolled dough out and cut out your fruit shapes using cookie cutters or a knife if you prefer to hand cut, then "quick freeze" in the freezer once more until they are firm before baking. This should only be a few minutes depending on your freezer temperature.
8. For your leftover dough, while it is workable (but still cold), roll out again and cut more shapes. If your dough becomes too soft, quick freeze for a couple minutes. Try to refrain from rolling dough more than 3-4 times as it can add air bubbles and cause spreading.
9. Remove your chilled shapes and immediately bake for 8-10 minutes and remove when the cookies turn matte, and you no longer see a sheen. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then place on a cooling rack until completely cool to the touch before decorating.

To make the Icing:

1. Using a Whisk attachment, whisk together your meringue powder and warm water until it resembles a frothy foam on speed 4 -about 1-2 minutes.
2. Once foamed/bubbly add your vanilla until combined.
3. Slowly add in your powdered sugar a cup at a time until all your powdered sugar is added. Start on low and then slowly increase your mixer speed to speed 4 until it starts to thicken.
4. While your mixer is on, add in the corn syrup and mix until you reach stiff peaks.
5. Once finished mixing, your results should be a thick and fluffy royal icing. It should not have any flow to it, aka. stiff peaks.
6. You may now split the icing into bowls for coloring and/or change of consistencies. For more creativity and taste, use extract to add different flavors to your colors. It is a great idea to have two piping bags of each color. One has a thick consistency for details and outlining, the other as a thin consistency for flooding/filling in.

Decorating your fruit cookies:

1. After distributing your icing and coloring it to your liking, pour into your piping bags. Use a bag tie or tie off to seal the open end. For these cookies, the colors used were: Natural Yellow, Natural Dark Green, Natural Pink, Natural Red, Natural Sunset Orange, Natural Black, and Natural Brown. 
2. Prepare by outlining your cookies in a thicker consistency of the color of your choosing, let dry for a few minutes then go back in to flood with a thin consistency with the same color. For faster drying, place your wet cookies in front of a fan.
3. Once your cookies first layer has dried enough that it has a “skin”, you may now pipe on your details, such as the seeds, leaf details and more.
4. Let your cookies dry for at least 12 hours before packaging. Full drying time may vary based on the level of humidity in your kitchen and if you are using a fan or not.
5. Your cookies are now ready to enjoy or package for future use.

Tips:

• To achieve deeper and more vibrant colors, prepare your colored icing 24 to 48 hours in advance to let the colors develop. You can bag your icing and keep it on your kitchen counter or refrigerate it if you live in a warm climate.
• Drying cookies in a dehydrator or in your oven is not recommended when using natural food coloring as dye-free food coloring are more sensitive to heat than synthetic food dyes.