Wet On Wet Flowers

I've shown how to make these before but I so love cookie decorating that's easier than it looks and these wet on wet flowers are just that.

They are called wet on wet flowers because they are created by adding wet icing onto wet icing and then using a scribe tool to swirl and blend to create the flowers.

It truly is easy and a little bit of practice makes perfect. The only rules are that you must have all of your icing colors mixed and ready to go at once before you start decorating and you can only work on one cookie at a time.

Here's how:

Get all your icing colors mixed and ready. You want them all to be flood consistency.

I outlined and flooded a cookie with green icing and then immediately added a blob of light pink, the size I wanted the flower to be. On top of the light pink, I then added some dark pink and white.

I used my scribe tool (a skewer or toothpick would also work) to swirl the colors together to create a flower shape.

Then I dropped on a bit of dark yellow for the center.

I highlighted the center by adding some dark pink under it.

And, added some more drops of light pink to create another layer of petals.

Maneuver the icing with your scribe tool until you are satisfied.

I'm pleased with this!

Add some green icing for leaves.

Use your scribe tool to pull the green icing out to a point. Before I did this, I dipped my scribe tool in a bit of the lighter green to create little lines.

I also decided to add a few white dots all around the cookie.

Here's another one. I outlined and flooded the cookie, added the same icings for the flower and added a dark pink border.

I didn't add a center to this flower, I just swirled the colors together. For interest, I added a little line of yellow to the center of the leaves by dipping my scribe tool in the icing and lightly drawing it on.

Here's a variation with lots of small flowers and a bead border. I didn't add any white to the flowers, I just used light and dark pink.

And here's yet another design. There really is no end to what you can create.

Peppermint Candy Cookies

These peppermint candy cookies are festive and quick to decorate which makes them a great decorated cookie choice for holiday celebrations.

 I found the cutter that I used at a local baking shop but it is also easy to find online. Another option is to just decorate small round cookies with the peppermint design.

I really love that only two colors of royal icing are needed to make these cuties.

Here's how:

The cutout cookies before baking. Click here for my favorite tried and true cookie recipe.

After baking the cookies, get your royal icing ready. You need flood consistency white and small amount of red icing. Place each of the icings in pastry bags fitted with #2 tips.

Outline and fill the circle center of the cookie.

Immediately pipe eight short red lines around the circle. This is wet on wet cookie decorating so it's important to work fast and work on just one cookie at a time.

With a scribe tool, toothpick or skewer draw through the lines going in a spiral and working towards the center of the circle.

It will look like this.

Decorate all of the centers of the cookies.

Outline and fill the wrapper sections of the cookie. Use your scribe tool to move the icing to fill in the gaps and evenly distribute it.

One down and more to go!

Snowy Scene Gingerbread Cookies

A round cutter and three colors of royal icing are all you need to make these Snowy Scene Gingerbread Cookies.

A cool 3-D effect on the cookie is created by adding the tree and a few additional snowflakes after the basecoat has dried. These are fun to make and there are so many design options depending on what colors you choose. Using black icing for the background would give you a night scene and you could even add a few gold dots for stars to the sky. A snowman would also be a cute and easy to pipe free-hand.

Here's how I decorated them and my favorite Gingerbread Cookie recipe:

Outline and flood the cookies with blue royal icing and immediately add different sized dots of white using medium consistency icing and a #1 tip. Let the cookies dry completely before moving onto the next step.

Using medium consistency green royal icing, outline and fill a tree in the center of the cookie.

Immediately add a few dots of medium consistency white icing on the tree and outline and fill a snowy bank under the tree.

The final step is to add a brown trunk with medium consistency royal icing and a #1 tip.

Let the cookies dry completely before serving or packaging.

Gingerbread Cookie Dough
6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 large eggs
1 cup unsulfured molasses

Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.

Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. With cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 10 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

St. Patrick's Day Cookies

Simple shamrock cookies for St. Patrick's Day. There are also a few lucky four leaf clovers in the bunch.

All it takes to make a pretty assortment of more than three dozen St. Patrick's Day shamrock cookies is one afternoon, one batch of sugar cookie dough and two colors of  royal icing.

These cookies are so easy and the perfect project for novice cookie decorators. For the shamrock design, made using two colors and the wet on wet technique, you don't even need to bake any special shaped cookies. 

I used a variety of scalloped square and round cutters but you could add the shamrock decoration to any shape. Heck, you could even use a plain old drinking glass to cut the cookies.

For a tutorial on how to decorate the solid green shamrock cookies click here.

And, here is how to add a shamrock design to cookies:

Outline the cookies with white piping consistency royal icing. Let the outline dry for a bit while you fill two piping bags, fitted with #2 tips, with flood consistency white and green royal icing. Flood an outlined cookie with the white icing.

Use a skewer or scribe tool to evenly distribute the icing. Giving the cookie a gentle shake also helps.

Immediately add three drops of the green icing

Use a skewer or scribe tool to draw through one of the dots.

Wipe the skewer or scribe clean with a paper towel and draw through a second dot.

Again wipe your tool clean and draw through the last dot. And there you have it, a cute little shamrock cookie. Boy that was easy.

When you get the hang of it, you can work fast, decorating three cookies at a time.

Super cute.

It's also fun to make a few four leaf clovers. To do this, just add four green dots instead of three.

For the larger cookies I added a shamrock to each corner.

Just swipe through the green dots, working towards the center and being careful to wipe the tool you are using after each swipe.

Be sure to let the cookies dry completely before serving or packaging. This usually takes 6 to 8 hours.

Candy Corn Cookies

For Halloween I prefer to make mini decorated cookies because I can get more than 60 with just one batch of dough and let's face it, it's better to share smaller-sized sweets this super sugary time of year.

One of the easiest mini Halloween cookies to make are these candy corn cookies. I used a 4-inch round cutter to make them by simple slicing the round into eighths.

Only three colors of icing are needed and the cookies can be decorated all at once.

Here's how:

Cut a 4-inch round of cookie dough.

Cut the round into fourths.

Cut the fourths in half and bake.

Ice the bottom third of the cookies with yellow royal icing.

Immediately add a layer of orange icing.

Finally add white icing at the top and that's it. These cookies come together amazingly fast.