Christmas Light Cookies

If you need a quick decorated cookie for a holiday party, these Christmas Light Cookies are perfect. Light cookie cutters are easy to find online and in baking supply stores.

The light cutter that I used. I got mine at Sur La Table.

I used gingerbread dough to make them but sugar cookie dough would work just as well.

To decorate them I used flood consistency red and green royal icing and a #2 tip, outlining and then immediately flooding the bulb as not to leave a distinguishable outline.

For the threads of the bulb, I used piping consistency icing, tinted grey.  Piping the threads of the bulb with a stiffer icing using a #2 tip adds interest to the cookie and is so easy to do.

Cookie closeup.

Adding texture by piping the threads on top of the bulb makes a big impact on these simple cookies.

A nice way to display the finished cookies is to lay them across a piece of colored twine so that they actually look like a string of festive lights.

More Cookies

Yesterday I baked and decorated just under 300 sugar cookies for our cookie boxes to benefit the Wednesday Community Meal. 

Because I needed to make so many, I chose a simple design that came together fast.

I also used a plain round cookie cutter. When you need to work in bulk there's no time for fussy cutters. You want clean edged and open cutters that allow you to cut the dough with one press and then pop it right out.

Another tip is that a circle is easier to outline and fill with royal icing than a square. With squares you have to stress more about straight lines and easing the icing into 90-degree corners.

I also didn't want to wait for the basecoat of icing to dry before adding detail so I used the wet on wet method. That way I only had to wait once for the cookies to dry.

The plain open cutter that I used.

After flooding, add red lines around the cookie.

Use a skewer to draw through the lines starting on the outside and working towards the center.

Snowflake Cookies

These snowflake gingerbread cookies are so pretty and simple to make. This is a very good design for beginning cookie decorators.

I like the look of the dark brown gingerbread around the fresh white icing. I also love a cookie design that requires only two icing colors. If you wanted to get really fancy I suppose you could sprinkle sanding sugar over the piping detail but really there's no need.

Here's how to make them:

Bake snowflake shaped cookies.

Outline and flood the cookie with white royal icing. Use a skewer to move the icing and fill in all the gaps.

After filling the cookie give it a gentle shake to help the icing settle.

Let the icing dry before moving on to the next step.

With piping consistency blue icing and a #1 pastry tip, pipe a straight line across the snowflake.

Pipe another line.

And another.

Pipe three "v" shapes at the end of each line. Make the "v's" larger as you get closer to the center.

Finally, pipe a ring of dots around the center. That's it. Simple and sweet.