Because I can't leave well enough alone, I did a bit of searching to find a recipe for smoother, less craggily topped cookies, as well as a recipe that was a little more reproducible in terms of colour. (Yes, I did just use the word 'reproducible' while talking about cookies. I'm a scientist - I can't help it.)
I found a fabulous method for making rich coloured cookie swirls thanks to Make.Bake.Celebrate, and an incredibly tasty yet easy to work with cookie recipe from Sugarbelle.
While you can use what ever sugar cookie recipe you prefer, not all sugar cookies are the same, largely because of the consistancy of the dough. Some recipes are more suited for rolling and cutting shapes out with a cutter and are best used when the dough is chilled - these cookies don't spread or rise very much, which is why they can hold the shape of whatever cutter you use. Some recipes are best for 'drop cookies', where you drop teaspoons or scoops or dough on the tray with minimum fuss - these are basically 'fire and forget' cookies that spread and rise, leaving a rough, cracked surface.
The recipe below, often called a 'play dough' cookie recipe, is somewhere in between. They rise and spread a little, but they come out of the oven with a nice smooth surface. I'm a fan!
Unicorn Poop Cookies
1 cup butter, softened (I almost always use salted butter, but you can use unsalted if you prefer)
1 and 1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon butter flavouring (Optional; you can find this in specialty bake stores)
2 and 3/4 cup plain flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Mix together flour, baking powder and salt in a seperate bowl
Cream softened butter and sugar
Add egg and flavouring, and mix until incorperated
Slowly mix in dry ingredients, 1/4 of a cup at a time
The resulting dough may need to be kneaded of mashed together to form a smooth dough. Once you are happy with the dough, divide it into four or five portions (depending on how many colours you'd like) in seperate bowls. Add colouring to each dough, and knead together until the colour is evenly distributed. I'd recomend latex gloves for this part!
As far as the colouring goes, ideally you can use colour pastes/gels (from companies like Wilton), because they give a much richer end product. Colour gels are expensive and can be a pain to clean up, so if you don't have any on hand you can happily use the standard food dyes that you can get in the supermarket.
Once your dough is dyed, roll grape-sized portions of each colour and set aside. If your dough is too soft, chill it in the refrigerator for 15 mins or so.
After rolling out your different coloured balls, take one ball of each colour and mash them together to make a larger, multicoloured ball. Then it's just a simple matter of rolling out the ball between your hands like a sausage until it is somewhere between a finger and a pencil in thickness. Coil the dough in a spiral from the inside out, and transer to a parchment lined baking tray. Once safely on the tray, squash the coil with the palm of your hand to both slightly flatten the coil and to make sure all the spirals are stuck together.
Space the spirals about 3 cm (1 inch) apart. Once you have finished making all your spirals, bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C (350 F) for 7-10 minutes. It will be hard to tell if they are ready, because of the vivid colours, but once you start to see browning at the edges they are ready to come out. Don't be afraid to under bake these - they are just as delicious if they are a little bit soft!
Once the cookies are cooled you can either stuff them straight into your mouth, or if you're feeling especially fancy you can knock it up a notch with glitter and shiny things. First apply a layer of sparkle gel (avaliable from Wilton), then sprinkle with edible glitter. Add all kinds of edible shiny or frou-frou things. Go nuts!
Eat and share with friends. I recommend waiting until they take a bite before telling them that they are eating unicorn poop.
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