Edible Gift Boxes - sugar cookies

Method

• Special equipment: piping bags with medium and small tips
• Make the dough for sugar cookies: Dust a sheet of parchment paper with flour.
• Place the dough on top.
• Dust with more flour and top with another sheet of parchment.
• Roll it out to 1/8-inch thickness and chill until firm, about 20 minutes.
• Cut the pieces: Measure and cut six panels for each box: a 4" x 4" top and bottom, two 4" by 2" sides and two 3 3/4" by 2" sides.
• Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut them out.
• Bake and cool all pieces according to recipe instructions, reducing cooking time as needed.
• To create the perfect right angles after cooling, use a fine kitchen rasp to file the edges, making them nice and straight.
• Thicken some royal icing: Thicken about 2 cups of the royal icing with either cornstarch and a couple of drops of vinegar, or extra confectioners' sugar, to get the consistency of caulk.
• Fit a pastry bag with a medium round tip and fill it with the thickened icing.
• Make the boxes: Using royal icing, attach the four walls to the bottom and to each other.
• The longer walls will face each other.
• Leave the tops for the end.
• Let the boxes dry 24 hours before adding finishing touches.
• Store remaining royal icing with plastic wrap touching the surface.
• When dry, use a paring knife to trim off excess overflowing icing so the outside of the box has a clean finish.
• Decorate: Fit small round tips into piping bags.
• Divide the remaining royal icing into batches and color as desired.
• Fill bags with icing and pipe neat lines along the seams of the box first.
• Then go back and pipe little dots along the piped lines to create more interest.
• At this point, you can decorate the box and lid however you want.
• Do some pencil sketches on paper first to get an idea of what you might like.
• Then go for it.
• Let the icing dry thoroughly for at least 24 hours.
• Fill with treats of your choosing, tie with a ribbon and present.