Snowman Cookies

The snowmen on these cookies were piped freehand onto an iced and dry base cookie.

I like cookie designs that don't require the purchase of a special cutter. I chose to use a plaque cutter for these but a simple round or square would work well too.

Because they were made freehand, every single snowman is a little bit different which I think makes them interesting and injects them with some personality. I got a kick out of piping their stick arms in different poses.

These cookies were decorated in four steps and need drying time in between. They aren't hard to make, they just take some time.

Here's how:

Outline and flood a cookie with light blue icing and then immediately pipe on some white dots for snow. Set the cookie aside to dry completely. Keep working until all of your cookies have this base coat.

Once your base coats are dry, pipe on a snowman with medium consistency white icing. Use your scribe tool or a skewer to move the icing to fill in the gaps and give the cookie a gentle shake to help the icing settle.

Repeat until there is a snowman on every cookie and set them aside to dry completely.

Once your cookies are dry, pipe on three dots of piping consistency icing and have a small food safe brush ready to use. (I apologize for the bad lighting, I was working late into the night.)

With the brush, spread the icing neatly out to the edges of the snowman working in a circular motion so that it looks natural. Set the cookies aside to dry completely.

The final step is to use a black edible ink marker to add eyes, a mouth and buttons. Also, with piping consistency brown and orange royal icing add the arms and carrot nose. For the nose, I used my scribe tool to help manipulate the icing to a point.

All done!

Once the cookies are completely dry they can be packaged. I put each cookie into a self-sealing cellophane bag.

Colorful Holiday Cookies

Using four colors of royal icing and the easy wet on wet decorating technique, I came up with these bright and cheerful colorful Holiday cookies.

Just choose a cutter (I used a plaque cutter that my sister gave me but any simple shaped cutter will do), mix your icing and decorate.

Here's how:

Choose a cutter.

Roll out and cut the dough.

Bake.

Outline the cookies with piping consistency royal icing. I used a #1 tip.

Mix your royal icing colors and thin to flood consistency by adding water just a little at a time.

I also thinned some white icing to flood consistency and then got all of the colors into pastry bags fitted with #2 tips and ready to go. With wet on wet decorating it's essential that all of your icings are ready to use before you begin decorating.

Flood a cookie with white icing.

Immediately add stripes of color.

Use a skewer to draw up and down through the stripes to create a chevron pattern. Be sure to wipe the skewer clean with a paper towel after each swipe.

Or, you could just add colorful dots. Cute and simple.

For a tree, outline and fill triangles with green icing. Use a skewer to help blend the icing in the center.

Drop on some red dots for ornaments and add a trunk.

Or you can just add some stripes and swirl them together with a skewer to create a marbled effect.

Or, just pipe on some stripes.

For a cobweb effect pipe squares of alternating colors onto the cookie.

Use a skewer to draw lines from the center of the cookie to the edge. Be sure to clean the skewer after each swipe.

These simple round dotty cookies are cute too. Wet on wet is a fast and easy way to decorate.

Christmas Tree Cookies

A brushed embroidery technique adds dimension and interest to these Christmas tree cookies. I used gingerbread dough but sugar cookie dough would work just as well just be sure to add a bit of brown icing to the trunk.

Here's how to make them:

Bake a batch of Christmas tree cookies.

Outline the tree with light green royal icing.

Fill in the outline and let the base coat dry completely before moving on to the next step.

With piping consistency dark green royal icing and a #2 tip pipe a line across the top of the bottom layer of branches.

Use a damp square tipped brush to pull the icing down. Keep cleaning your brush and working until you get a feathery effect.

Repeat for all the layers of branches.

When you get to the top, outline the tip and use your brush again to pull the icing down.

When you are done, let the trees dry before decorating further.

Using piping consistency icing and a  #2 tip to add garlands.

Add some red dots for ornaments and your tree is complete. I used a #1 tip. You want your icing to be stiff enough to hold it's shape but soft enough so that peaks don't form on top of the dots. Experiment on a plate beforehand to make sure your icing is the right consistency.

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.

Turkey Sugar Cookie Video

Here's a quick video to show you how to create the turkey sugar cookies in my November 11, 2012 post.

Dinosaur Sugar Cookies

My daughter Eleanor suggested I buy this dinosaur cookie cutter and I'm glad she did because I love these cookies. Just two icing colors are needed to make this simple design.

Prepare two colors of royal icing - one for the body and one for the details. Both icings should be flood consistency and be fitted with a  #1 pastry tip. I use this smaller tip because of the small face and narrow tail of the cookie.

Outline the dinosaur.

Fill the outline with more royal icing. I use a skewer to ease the icing towards the edge.

While the base icing is still wet, use your other color of royal icing to drop different sized dots along the dinosaur's back and add a small dot for the eye.

That's all there is to it. If you notice, the tails of the dinosaurs are positioned differently. Before baking the cookies, you can gently shape them to get the look you want.