Sugar Cookie House Mug Toppers

Hot chocolate bombs are super trendy right now and make great gifts. In order to make them even sweeter, why not add a homemade mini sugar cookie house mug topper? Not only do they look adorable, but they taste so good!

In this Instructable, I will show you how to make these cute little houses with just a few ingredients. The decorating possibilities are endless, so unleash your creativity and follow these steps to begin.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• Royal Icing, for assembly & decorating
• sprinkles and sanding sugar, as desired for decorating

Tools:

• Bowls
• Spatula
• Whisk
• Electric mixer
• Rolling pin
• Parchment paper
• Cookie sheet
• Cookie cutters
• Piping bags and tips

Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl with a whisk.

Cream butter and sugar in a mixer with paddle attachment until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes on medium speed.

Beat in egg and vanilla.

Add flour mixture and stir on low until combined. Turn out on the counter and form into a flattened disc, about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out dough between two pieces of parchment paper to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Cut out front, back, sides and roof of house using a mini house cookie cutter set. You will need a front, a back, 2 sides and 2 roof panels to make each house. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake 12 - 14 minutes until edges begin to turn golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely.

The houses are much easier to decorate before assembly, so decorate each piece with royal icing and sprinkles as desired and let dry completely. For these houses, I filled decorating bags with white and light blue royal icing and fitted them with #2 decorating tips. I flooded the front, back and sides with blue icing and the roof panels with white icing and sprinkled with sanding sugar. After that dried for about an hour, I piped details like the windows and doorways with white icing and added sprinkles. Feel free to keep it simple or get as creative as you like here!

After all the pieces have dried, assemble into houses using thick royal icing. Pipe a line of icing on the edge of each side panel and affix to the front panel. I found it easier to make this side/front assembly for all of the houses at once. This allowed the first ones to dry as I was completing the rest.

Next pipe a line of icing on the exposed edges of the side panels and attach the rear panel. Repeat for all the houses. After this has dried a bit, it's time to assemble the roofs. Pipe icing along the top edges for the front and back of the house and add the 2 roof panels. Repeat for all of the houses.

To finish, pipe icing along the peak and edges of the roof to fill in.