Stay for Tea

A couple of weeks ago, a little firecracker of a girl I’m friends with celebrated her 6th birthday.

Birthday girl makes a wish

The spread!

My friend Jenny E.’s delicious home made scones & lemon curd.

For her lavish birthday spread, hosted by her mom and our friend Sarah, I baked rosewater sugar cookies, based on this recipe.

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. lemon extract (Lacking lemon extract, I substituted with 3 teaspoons of fresh lemon zest – 1/2 tsp. of lemon extract roughly equals 1 tsp. of lemon zest. I also added a couple of teaspoons of water, to make sure that the liquid stays the same for the recipe).
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. rose water
1/8 tsp. salt
3 c. flour

Cream sugar and softened butter until smooth. Beat in yolk and flavorings. Combine baking soda and sour cream and stir into sugar mixture. Stir in rose water. Sift salt and flour; mix with batter. Roll out on floured surface and cut with cookie cutter. Bake on greased sheets in preheated 325 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.

For the frosting, I used a simple, quick icing recipe.

2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
1/5 cup milk (really, just check for consistence, not too thick, but not too runny)
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
1 tsp. of rosewater
dash of salt

Once the cookies had cooled sufficiently, I used a butter knife to spread the icing on the cookies, then topped them off with some rainbow sprinkles I had in the cupboard.