Painted Cookies

Painted cookies.

If painting is your passion then you might want to try using cookies as your canvas.

Painting onto a cookie is really no different than putting watercolors onto paper. The only supplies you need are gel food colorings, paintbrushes and some dry base-coated cookies.

To thin the coloring I used plain old water but you could also use vodka or alcohol based extracts. The only difference is that when you use alcohol it takes less time for the colors to dry.

I used a plate for mixing my colors.

With my minimal painting ability I think these floral designs turned out just fine. Imagine what an experienced painter could create? I'm going to have to recruit some of my artistic friends to find out. Linda, Christine and Michael — I'm talking about you.

This would also be a great project for kids who want to decorate cookies but aren't quite ready to handle a pastry bag.

Here's how I painted the rose cookie:

I first got my painting supplies together — Gel food coloring, water and a paintbrush.

Start with a dry base-coated cookie. It's very important that the icing be completely dry.

I added some blobs of pink to get started.

Next, I added some leaves around each pink blob.

With a darker pink I added a touch of more color to blobs and now they are starting to look like roses.

Using a darker green, I painted a single stroke on one side of each of the leaves to add definition.

Using a bit of white coloring and a very small brush, I added more detail to the roses and leaves. And that's all there is to it.