Baby Deer Cookies

These baby deer cookies are the final tutorial from my woodland cookie set.

My friend Cindy warned me that the deer cutter that caught my eye on our field trip to Blake's Decorette Shop might not be the best.

"It looks like it would be hard to get the dough out of those thin legs," she said.

I ignored reason and bought the cutter anyways because it was so darn cute, but Cindy was right. The thin legs were a big pain!

Patience, very cold cookie dough and the use of a small soft paint brush to easy the dough out of the cutter worked but gosh, I'd hate to make more than a dozen of these.

Luckily the decorating went smoothly. Only three colors were needed,  just brown and a small amount of white and black. And, brown was the only color that I needed a piping bag for. I applied the white and black details with a paint brush and scribe tool.

Here's how I made them:

Be patient and cut and bake your cookies. I couldn't have gotten the dough to release without applying some pressure from the brush. As you can see this leaves a few marks on the legs of the deer but these won't be noticeable after decorating.

I outlined and filled the cookie with brown icing using a pastry bag and #2 tip. Then I immediately added some small drops of thinned white icing using a scribe tool. Just touch the icing with the tip of the scribe and then touch it onto the deer's back. I let this dry completely before moving onto the next step.

Using white icing and a small brush add white to the tail, hooves, ears, chest and eye area.

Use the scribe tool to add a black nose, eye, lashes and lines on the bottom of the hooves. While the eye is still wet, use the scribe add the tiniest drop of white.

Kilt Cookies

My friend Ginny asked me to make kilt cookies for a bridal shower and I'm so glad she did because I love a cookie challenge and I love baking for friends. The wedding dress cookies I made are also for Ginny and each of her guests will get one of each to take home.

It did take some time for me figure out how to create a plaid design on a cookie — At first I thought I could just pipe the lines but I then decided that method would look too bulky and not very realistic.  And, it would be very hard to pipe the lines thin enough and I was worried about smearing.

I also knew that I wanted the design to lay flat on the cookie, so my solution was to paint on the plaid using thinned royal icing and a very small brush.

Each of Ginny's guests will get an individually wrapped wedding dress and kilt cookie to take home.

Here's how I made them:

I used a 4-inch square cutter to cut the cookies and then trimmed the edges to make a trapezoid.

Cookies ready for the oven.

After baking, I outlined a cookie using flood consistency blue icing and a #2 tip.

And, I immediately filled in the cookie using the same icing and tip.

I used a scribe tool to evenly distribute the icing and gave the cookie a gentle shake to help the icing settle.

Once all of the cookies are outlined and filled, set them aside to dry completely. I let them dry overnight.

After the cookies have dried, paint on four lines of black using tinted and thinned royal icing and a small brush. Periodically clean off your brush by dipping it in water and patting it dry with a paper towel. Remember to make the lines perpendicular and not parallel to the sides of the cookie.

Once all of the cookies have the black lines added, mix up some thinned green royal icing and get ready to paint.

Add a line down the center.

Add a line on each side of the center line and a line outside of each of the black vertical lines.

Keep working until all of the cookies have five lines of green.

I then mixed up some thinned dark blue icing and added two horizontal lines on each side of the bottom black horizontal line. Do this to all of the cookies and let them dry completely.

Once the cookies are dry, it's time to add a final touch to the plaid. Paint white lines using thinned royal icing on top of the black vertical lines and add two horizontal lines above each of the dark blue lines.

Now it's time for a belt. Pipe two lines of medium consistency royal icing using a #2 tip.

Add more lines to fill it in. I purposely didn't use a scribe tool to manipulate the icing to flatten it since I wanted a textured look to the belt.

Add a belt to all of the cookies and let that dry.

Now for the very last step, using thinned white icing and a small brush, paint a buckle on the center of the belt. Let the cookies dry completely before packaging or serving.

A Cookie As Good As It Looks

When it comes to taste, fancy decorated cookies unfortunately have a bad reputation.

"I love how your cookies look but I honestly didn't expect them to taste delicious too," is what I hear time and time again when I serve my creations.

There is good reason for the skepticism, because in all honestly,  most decorated cookies don't taste that great. They are often thin, dry, flavorless and over-iced, sometimes with more sickly sweet icing than cookie. And although they look pretty, I absolutely abhor cookies topped with gumpaste and fondant decorations. Ugh. It's like eating straight up sugar with an artificial aftertaste.

Because of the negative preconception of fancy cookies, I always offer samples when I sell my creations and surprise people when they discover that a decorated cookie can taste as good as it looks.

Making a delicious decorated cookie isn't hard, it just takes good recipes and consideration. Here are my best tips for making a delicious tasting decorated cookie:

*Most important is having a good cookie recipe.  My favorite tried and true recipe contains all-butter, not too much sugar and a good dose of vanilla and pure almond extract. Click here for the recipe.

*When I roll out cookie dough, I aim for 1/4 inch in thickness. I want to be sure to end up with a product that's more cookie than royal icing, 3:1 is ideal.

Quarter-inch thick cookies ready to be baked.

*If I want to make a cookie with an intricate layered design, I go the double-decker route by topping a base cookie with another cookie. It's essential to have more cookie than icing!

For these Gardenia cookies, I went the double-decker route and added layer of "cookie petals" to keep the flower design from being all icing and making the cookie too sweet.

*As for the royal icing, powdered sugar is a necessary ingredient so I cut the sweetness with some tablespoons of lemon juice. The addition makes a world of difference and compliments the vanilla almond flavor of the cookie. Click here for my royal icing recipe.

*Remember that less is sometimes more. I've learned from experience that it's very easy to take a cookie into the realm of being overdecorated. Practice restraint with your decorating because simple is often what's most beautiful.

Colorful dot cookies are simple and beautiful!

Here are some of my favorite designs but most importantly, these are also great tasting cookies!