Violet Cookies

I know it's not Spring yet, but it is right around the corner.

Besides warmer weather, I'm really looking forward to the emergence of some color in my garden and couldn't resist getting ahead of the season and making a batch of these pretty Violet Cookies.

Using the wet-on-wet decorating technique and different icing colors, you could make other flower varieties as well.  The only trick is to have all your icing colors mixed and ready in piping bags before you begin decorating — All of the colors have to be flood consistency and added one right after the other.

Start with decorating one cookie at a time and once you get the hang of it, you can move onto decorating up to three cookies at once in assembly-line style. 

Here's how:

Bake some round sugar cookies and get your flood consistency royal all ready, tinted and bagged.  I mixed white, lavender, dark purple and bright yellow. I fitted the white and lavender icing bags with #2 tips and the dark purple and bright yellow icing bags with #1 tips.

Outline and fill the cookie with white icing and immediately add five lavender dots.

Use a skewer, toothpick or scribe tool to swipe through the dots. I swiped through these twice but later decided that just a single swipe was better. Be sure to wipe your tool clean after each swipe so that the design stays neat.

After swiping through all of the dots, add five dark purple dots to the bottom of the petals.

Move your skewer, toothpick or scribe tool up and down through the dark purple dots.

Here is a flower with just one swipe through the petals and more exaggerated swipes through the dark purple. This is the look I like best but it took some experimenting to get to it. When working on a new design I always bake a few extra cookies because I know practice makes perfect. Now all this cookie needs is a drop of bright yellow icing in the center. The cookies need to dry completely before packaging or serving, this take about 8 hours.

Closeup of the finished cookies.

Blossom Cookies

With Spring and Easter right around the corner I decided it was time to make some pretty blossom cookies.

I used a stiff white icing and a leaf tip to make the blossoms on these pink oval cookies. I like that the flowers have dimension and aren't piped flat onto the cookie.

To solidify the structure of the leaves and blossoms, I used a skewer to gently press the designs into the base coat. If you don't do this, the three dimensional decorations will be more fragile and could break off.

Using the same #67 Wilton leaf tip that I used for the blossoms, I added some bright green leaves for even more interest. Before you begin decorating your cookies, it's always a good idea to test the consistency of the icing and practice by piping onto a plate first.

Here's how to make them:

Outline with a #2 tip and flood consistency icing.

Immediately fill in the cookie.

Use a skewer or toothpick to move the icing and fill in all the open areas. Give the cookie a shake to help the icing settle.

Add branches using a stiffer icing and a #1 tip. You can add them while the base icing is still wet.

Using a stiff white icing and a #67 leaf tip, pipe some pretty blossoms. You can use a skewer to gently push the blossoms into the base coat.

Keep working.

Add some green leaves again using the #67 leaf tip.

Add some light pink dots around the edges. Let the cookies dry completely before packaging.

Brushed Embroidery On Cookies

My latest attempt at brushed embroidery on sugar cookies.

For Valentine's Day this year, I experimented with brushed embroidery on sugar cookies. It was a technique I'd been wanting to try for some time but was hesitant because it seemed so complicated.
 

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it actually was. And, I think the results of my first attempt are pretty good.

But there's always room for improvement and cooking decorating is a constant learning process. Sometimes you just need to bake a batch and practice.

My first attempt at brushed embroidery.

So taking my own advice, I thought today was a good time to give it another whirl.

What's most important when decorating with brushed embroidery is having the right consistency of icing.

You need a stiff icing for the outlining of your brushed embroidery so that when you pull the icing inward from the edges, you see the ridges and lines of your strokes.

And, the base coat of your cookie needs to be completely dry before even attempting brushed embroidery.

Don't skimp on the drying time or you'll be frustrated. Flood icing can take anywhere from 4 to 24 hours to dry completely.

It all depends on the humidity, the amount of coloring and the amount of water needed to thin your icing.

Wait for the base coat of flood icing to dry completely before attempting brushed embroidery.

Using a stiff icing and a #2 tip, squiggle the outline of flower petals onto the cookie. Using the side of a damp square-tip brush, pull the icing towards the edge of the cookie.

Experiment with different shaped flowers and leaves. I find that random placement looks best.

Different shapes and patterns look striking when placed together. And, a border around the edges finishes them nicely.

Cookies To Celebrate Spring

The weather today in Portland was so warm and wonderful that I felt a "Happy Spring" cookie was in order.


These cookies came together super fast — just one batch of my favorite cookie dough (see my "Making The Dough" post from March 29th) and one batch of royal icing.

After the cookies have baked and cooled, outline and flood the cookies with royal icing. Use a skewer to help move the icing to fill the cookies.

 

Let the icing dry for at least one hour. Free hand your flowers, being careful not to drag the tip over the icing. Always let the icing fall into place.

Add a bright colored center and they're done. Leave your cookies out until the icing is completely dry. Depending on humidity this can take up to 24 hours. Once dry, they're ready to wrap and give.
Happy Spring!