Wedding Mehandi Sugar Cookies

So today is day 2 of Radhika's Birthday "Something Edible" for her 29th! Since she's getting married, I thought I'd make some Mehandi design cookies.

The cookie recipe is a basic "Sugar Cookie" recipe. There are many variations, but the one I used is below.  I also made half the recipe (just half all the ingredients.) You may even be able to purchase the dough ready made by Pillsbury or all the ingredients in a box in the cake/flour section.  I also purchased my hand shapes from here - Left Hand and Right Hand. Although the price of the cookie cutter is less than $1, you'll end up paying more for the shipping, so you may want to order some other cutters from them too. The shipping costs are on the middle of this page. Jo-Ann or other craft stores may sell them too. For me, ordering over the internet is the easiest!

4 cups all purpose flour
½ tsp salt (if your butter is salted, then don't add any salt!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups bakers sugar (bakers suger is finer than granulated sugar, but not like powdered sugar. Safeway sells this)
2 eggs (I don't eat eggs, so used egg-replacer, and followed the instructions for these)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used Orange Extract, but I guess you could use any flavor you like)
1 tablespoon water (optional, may need a little more or less at the end)

1. Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl This becomes the "dry-mix"
2. Beat the Sugar and Butter together until creamy in another bowl, and add the vanilla extract. This becomes the "wet-mix"
3. If you're using eggs, then whisk these into the wet-mix
4. If you're using Ener-G egg-replacer, then add the powder to the dry-mix, and add the water to the wet-mix
5. Slowly, add the dry-mix into the wet-mix bit by bit and making it into a dough
6. If you find the dough too dry, then add the tablespoon of water, or maybe a little more.
7. Knead the dough into a ball, cover in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for 30 mins
8. Heat the oven to 375 degrees
9. Take dough out of the fridge, break a piece off, knead it and roll it out using a little flour
10. Dip cookie cutter in dry flour, shake off excess and cut several shapes (before having to dip into dry flour again). If you get dry flour on the cut cookie, then gently wipe/brush off using dry finger-tips
11. Place on baking sheet, about 1-inch apart (I line my baking sheet with Parchment paper, makes it easier to take the cookies off)
12. Bake in the middle of the oven for 8-10 mins, until cookies are golden brown
13. Once the cookies are cooked, take out and let them cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack (or something else) to cool down completely
14. And now the fun part! Decorate!

I just used a Wilton Edible writing pens - like the ones here to decorate. I purchased mine from Jo-Ann or was it Safeway? It was a long time ago, and I know I didn't order them from the internet! :) Anyway, you should be able to buy them from any other good grocery store.