Cut out and bake the cookies following my Shortbread Cookies recipe.

Once the cookies have cooled, prepare the Royal Icing (see my How to Make Easy Royal Icing tutorial) and tint it with food colouring, using either gel or liquid types.

Use the same decorating method as in my Dorothy the Dinosaur Sugar Cookies. Outline each shape with a thin line of icing, then fill it in (“flooding”). Some bakers prefer a thinner icing for flooding, but using the same slightly thicker icing for both outlining and filling saves time and keeps the process simple. When only basic tools are available (for example, one #2 tip), it helps to reduce the number of icing types. Homemade piping bags made from baking paper also work well.