Plum Perfect Cookies

A box of pretty plums at the grocery store inspired me to incorporate the shade into my cookie decorating. 

Color mixing is really one of the most important parts of cookie decorating and what I often find most challenging. The trick really is to have a visual of the color you want before you start mixing so with some purchased plums as my guide, I mixed up a wonderful shade using electric purple, royal blue, teal and fuchsia gel colors. Getting the shade I wanted took a while, since I added just the smallest touch of coloring at a time, but it was time well spent. I love the how the shade turned out. For more coloring mixing tips,  click here.

For the ombre plum cookies, I iced some with the original plum color using flood icing and a #2 tip. Then,  I added a bit of white for a lighter shade, and then even more white for an even lighter shade. If I am going for multiple shades of a color, I always find it easiest to start with the darkest shade and simply work off of that by adding white icing.

For the plum brushed embroidery, I first base coated some plaque shaped cookies with delphinium blue royal icing. After the base coat dried completely, I added the brushed embroidery. It's essential that the base coat be completely dry (this takes 8 or more hours) or the icing will crumble and crack as you add the brushed embroidery.

It's important that your icing be piping consistency, this is icing that's stiff enough to hold it's shape but doesn't hold a peak. Pipe the outline of a flower and then use a small square tip brush to pull the icing inward, without breaking the top edge of the original outline. Use water to clean your brush off periodically between strokes and be sure to pat it dry with a paper towel. After you've finished one row of petals, add another.

This cookie is almost done. Notice that the center petal looks a little too wet, that's because I didn't dry my brush off enough. The second row of petals will help hide it but it's something that you want to avoid.

Two down, more to go. This kind of decorating isn't hard but it does take time, so turn on some music and try to enjoy the process. The results will be worth it.

Three Blue Heart Cookies

When it comes to cookie decorating, the possibilities are endless and I think that's the main reason why I love it so much. There's always something new to try and every attempt is an adventure in the kitchen.

These blue heart cookies are the result of a recent challenge I gave myself — Make three different heart cookies using just two colors of royal icing. So I sketched and pondered and came up with these three designs and I like them all but my favorite is the simplest heart that I just painted on using a brush and thinned royal icing.

In the past I've painted on cookies using food coloring but that creates a look more reminiscent of ink pens or a smooth watercolor. Using thinned royal icing adds a textural element that's more like acrylic paint and I like the look a lot. I also found that the thinned royal icing was easier than the food coloring to apply and control. I'm going to have to experiment with this some more.

In the meantime, here's how to make these Three Blue Heart Cookies:

Knitted Heart

This knitted heart effect took some time but really was easy to create. If you notice at the top of the cookie, the icing has settled a bit too much for my taste. Using a stiffer royal icing would have eliminated this problem. I remembered to test my icing by piping onto a plate first but I didn't wait and watch it for a bit to see if it would gradually settle.  Next time I'll do better — Proof that I make mistakes and am constantly learning every time I decorate cookies.

I added a base coat of white icing to a cookie that I imprinted with a heart cutter before baking. The icing fell into the imprint and left a nice guide for me to follow. After the base coat has dried, add a row of blue dots to the top of the heart.

Use a small square tip brush to swipe each dot downward and add another row of dots and repeat.

Keep working all the way down the heart and let the icing dry completely before serving or packaging.

Sparkly Brushed Embroidery Heart:

After your white base coat has dried, pipe a heart with stiff royal icing.

Use the side of a square tip brush to pull the icing inward, working around the whole outline and cleaning off your brush periodically. Add another heart outline on the inside and repeat adding the brushed embroidery technique.

Outline and fill a heart shape in the very center. Let this dry completely.

Using thinned royal icing and a brush, add a thin layer of icing to the top of the dried center heart. Immediately dip it in sanding sugar and use a soft clean brush to remove any excess bits of sugar. Wait for the coat of icing to dry completely before packaging or serving.

Royal Icing Painted Heart:

This was the easiest cookie to make and my favorite. Outline and fill a cookie with white royal icing. Let this dry completely. Thin blue royal icing with water to make a spreadable paint and simply paint it on in the shape of a heart. Just be sure that you use a brush that's for kitchen use only. Wilton sells a set of brushes that I really like. Let the heart dry completely before packaging or serving.

The Art Part Of Cookie Decorating

Painted Cookies

Brushed Embroidery

I started decorating cookies one day nearly ten years ago just because I was feeling creative and needed an art project. I've always been someone who has thrived on working with my hands and trying something new.

Actually one of the first things my mom said to my husband when we announced we were getting married was, "Do you know about Heidi and her projects?" What can I say? — I like making stuff and when I was younger I wasn't the best at cleaning up my messes.

When I gave cookie decorating a shot, I had been interested in it for a while after seeing Wendy Kromer demonstrate outlining and flooding on Martha Stewart's show and saving a 2004 issue of Sunset Magazine that had tips and a recipe from pastry chef Emily Luchetti. Her sugar cookie cutout recipe was so good that it is the one I still use today with one little change, the addition of a bit of almond extract.

I didn't take any pictures of my first cookie decorating project, a batch of snowflakes, and that's probably a good thing. They were nothing special due to too runny icing and my lack of experience but they tasted great and I was hooked on the whole process of decorating cookies.

It's my art and I love it because the decorating possibilities are endless and there's always a new technique to try, learn and improve upon. Plus, I get the added pleasure of seeing smiles when I share the cookies with family and friends.

This week I've been working on some new designs for an artisan fair at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. I've been doing a little brushed embroidery work, painting and I'm making sets of cookie place cards that will be sold with an edible marker, perfect for setting Thanksgiving tables.  I can be found selling alongside my good friend Linda who makes the most adorable and super soft one-of-a-kind knitted dolls.

I hope to see you this weekend. Here are the details: 

10th Annual Artisan Invitational Fair. Saturday, November 8, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 9, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Kempton Hall. Admission: 2 cans of food or $2. Benefiting The Cathedral Arts Program and Trinity Outreach Food Pantry. Free parking.

Cookie Decorating 101 Part 2

Sample cookies for my cookie decorating class. The favorite design of most of the students was the hot pink cookie with brushed embroidery on the bottom left.

Last night was the last session of my cookie decorating class at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and the focus was on royal icing consistencies and simple decorating techniques like wet on wet, double-decker and brushed embroidery. The latter is so striking and simple to do.

Once your base cookie is completely dry, outline a flower shape using piping consistency royal icing and a #2 tip. Then use the side of a damp square tip brush to pull the icing down and inward, cleaning the brush off periodically and being sure not to break through the outer edge of your piping.

Add another outline of petals and again, pull the icing down and inward. To finish the flower off, add some tiny dots for the center. You may need to use a skewer or scribe tool to push peaks down and flatten the dots.

The finished cookie.

Double-decker heart cookies — The base cookies are decorated with flat dots using the wet on wet technique of dropping dots of medium consistency icing onto a still wet flooded cookie. Once the base cookie is dry you can adhere a small heart on top using stiff royal icing as glue.

To add flat dots onto cookies, outline your cookies and get the icing for your dots all ready. Then, fill just one to three cookies at a time. You need to add the dots while the base icing is still wet.

Immediately drop dots of icing onto the cookies. Give each cookie a gentle shake to help settle the dots into the flood icing. Let the cookies dry completely before topping with another cookie for a double-decker treat. Or, leave the dotted cookies as is for something sweetly simple.

Me, demonstrating to the class last night how to thin royal icing to the proper consistency.

Here's some information about royal icing consistencies that I shared with the class and I hope you too find helpful. The best way to learn though is to bake a batch of cookies and just get decorating.

The Three Consistencies of Royal Icing

Having the right consistency of icing when you are decorating makes all the difference. Really, it is the most important part of cookie decorating. Always test your icing first by piping onto a plate before adding it to your cookies.


Flood:

This is royal icing that is used to fill cookies after outlining. It is also called 10 to 15 second icing because that’s how long it should take for the icing to settle back into place after drawing a line through it with the side of a spoon. If you are filling small areas you want the consistency to be 15 second icing. If you are filling large areas you want the consistency to be closer to 10 second icing. Think honey or shampoo.

If you don’t want a defined border on your cookie, you can outline and immediately fill with flood icing. It’s also convenient to only have to use one icing and one pastry bag.

Medium:

This is royal icing that is used for outlining, lettering, dots and flooding very small spaces. It’s icing that holds its shape but isn’t so thick that it holds a peak. You don’t want to see your stop and start points when you are adding lettering to cookies. Think yogurt or sour cream.

Piping:

This is stiff royal icing used for outlining, fine details and brushed embroidery. I use piping consistency for scalloped borders or anywhere I want a definite shape and don’t want to see any settling. Think toothpaste.

Shades Of Red Sugar Cookies

These bright cookies will be part of a red themed auction basket that is being put together by the Martha's Guild of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and will be auctioned for charity.

The cookies were decorated with five shades of red, the lightest for the base coat and the other four for decoration. The ombre red cookie and the floral designs were both made using the brushed embroidery technique.

To create the shades of red, I put the same amount of white icing into five bowls and added one drop of red gel paste in the first bowl, two in the second, three in the third and so on. I find this is the easiest way to get the same color at different depths for ombre designs.

After mixing the icings, I used the lightest colored icing for the base coat and covered the remaining bowls with plastic wrap. I wasn't ready to use them until the base coat was dry.

Waiting for the base coat to dry.

This cookie was made by piping a line with the lightest icing and using a square tipped brush to pull it down and create ridges.  I then repeated this two more times with the lightest shade of icing before moving onto the next lightest shade and so on, ending with three rows of each shade. A piped border that matches the color sections finishes it off.

A piped border also nicely finishes off the floral brushed embroidery cookie.

Brushed Embroidery Valentine Cookies

I like how the hot pink flowers on these cookies look against the cream colored base - bright,  but still refined.

Brushed embroidery is easier than it looks. It just takes some practice and the correct consistency of icing.

The icing needs to be of a soft piping consistency so that it's soft enough to pull a brush through yet solid enough to show the ridges and edges of your strokes.

The best way for me to describe the desired consistency is that it's the same as sour cream. It's always a good idea to test the consistency by piping a bit onto a plate and testing it before decorating your cookies.

Be judicious when you thin your icing. A few drops of water go a long way and you can always add water but you can't take it away.

Only two icings are needed to make these pretty cookies.

Here's how to do it:

After your base coat of icing has completely dried, outline your flower.

Use a square-tipped brush that is slightly damp to pull in the edges of your flower. Periodically, clean and re-dampen your brush.

It will look like this. Notice how the brush never broke through the outside edge of the piping?

Pipe another layer of petals.

Pull that icing inwards just like before.

Pipe a center on the flower.

With the same icing, add a few random dots for interest.

Add dots around the border and that's all there is to it.

Fancy Sugar Cookies

I baked an extra batch of sugar cookies today just so I could experiment and have fun.

I combined two decorating techniques — brushed embroidery and honeycomb — to come up with these fancy cookies. I don't know what else to call them.

I think these would be great for a tea party. My husband thought they would be just the thing for a "Downton Abbey" viewing party. I agree and also think I should remake them in pink and red for Valentine's Day.