Birthday Cookie

This cute double-decker Birthday Cookie is so simple to make, decorate and customize with a personal message. All you need to make it is cookie dough, royal icing and an edible ink marker.

When it came to cutting the parts for the cookie, I used a knife and cut them freehand. I cut a large 6-inch square for the base and for the candle, a thin strip of dough and a teardrop shape for the flame. 

The cookies parts before baking.

Candle close-up.

Here's how I decorated and assembled the cookie:

Outline and flood the base cookie with royal icing and set it aside to dry completely.

With a paint brush, paint on the dark pink and gold royal icing for the candle and the flame and let these dry completely before attaching them to the dried base cookie. I even added icing to the sides of the candle and flame cookies so that there were no bare edges to be seen after they were attached to the base. Let the cookie dry for another hour or so until the "icing glue" is set.

Then just use an edible ink marker to write a birthday greeting and that's all there is to it.

A side view of the finished cookie that's for our good friend Elise's 15th birthday.

Quick Decorated Cookies

If you have your heart set on making decorated sugar cookies but don't have a lot of time, these simple mini cookies are the answer.

As I've mentioned before, decorated cookies are not something to be made last minute because they are time consuming to make and not just because of the baking and decorating. They take a full day just to dry.

Luckily there are exceptions and these Blue Mini Heart Cookies are one of them. Because the 1.5-inch heart is small, I was able to use a thicker flood icing to fill them which reduced the drying time to six hours.

Usually I flood cookies with 10 to 15-second icing which is icing that takes that long to settle back into place after drawing through it with the side of a spoon, but for these I was able to use 20-second icing.

Another time saver was that I didn't use a separate icing to outline the cookies. Instead, using the same 20-second icing,  I outlined and filled each cookie in one step. This kind of decorating goes really fast and in the end it took me just four hours to bake and decorate 100 cookies. They'll take another six hours to dry and then they are done and ready to package and/or serve.

Step 1: Make and bake the cookies.

Step 2: Mix 20-second icing and outline and fill the cookies. I like to decorate three cookies at a time. After filling, use a scribe tool or skewer to evenly distribute the icing and give each cookie a gentle shake to help the icing settle into place.

Step 3: Wait for the cookies to dry.

For added interest I went for an ombre look, using three shades of teal icing and I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

Using different shades of icing is a nice way to add interest to a simple design.

These cookies are going to be served at this Saturday's Leonard Cohen Liturgy to benefit Hunger Ministries at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. I hope you can join us. Everyone is welcome and the event is free. It's great opportunity to enjoy wonderful live music and eat cookies.

Here's more infomation:

LEONARD COHEN LITURGY
Saturday, November 15, 6:00 p.m., Kempton Hall. Join Trinity for an alternative liturgy set to the songs of popular music’s saint of solitude, prophet of the heart and brother of mercy. From “Hallelujah” to “Tower of Song,” Leonard Cohen stands with Bob Dylan as one of the world’s most fascinating and prophetic songwriters. But this Alt.Liturgy will show that he also stands with David in the Psalms, constantly asking, “Can you hear my song?” A freewill offering will benefit Trinity’s hunger ministries.