Dipped Marbleized Cookies

I really wish I could, but I can't take credit for the clever marbleizing technique I used to create these colorful cookies.

The genius behind it is decorator Meghan Rosko who generously shared it on her YouTube channel. She also has a website called Nutmeg and Honeybee.

Besides the look of these cookies, I love how quick it was to decorate them. In just 10 minutes, I had two dozen cookies done and I didn't have to use a single pastry bag!

The cookies are decorated by dipping them into thinned royal icing that has food coloring painted on the surface. These were so much fun and I can't wait to experiment some more.

To decorate cookies, first soak some paint brushes in water. Then thin to flood consistency in a bowl some white royal icing and squeeze out your gel colors of choice onto a plate. I used moss green, cornflower blue, teal, ivory and rose.

Add strokes of the color to the top of your royal icing. Be sure to dip your brush in water to clean it off between colors.

Dip the cookies one at a time into the icing, holding your fingers back and just coating the top. Swirl and shake the excess icing off, still holding the cookie upside down. Place the cookie icing side up on a sheetpan to dry. Repeat, adding more gel coloring to the icing as needed. I found that I could get three cookies dipped before needing to add more color. Let the cookies dry completely before serving.

"Watercolored" Cookies

These bright "watercolored" cookies are easy to make and a perfect Valentine's Day cookie project for novice decorators who also crave some artistic freedom.

The "watercolor" is just gel food coloring, thinned with a bit of vodka. You can also use water but vodka is my preference since the alcohol evaporates more quickly and reduces your risk of getting the cookies too wet and dissolving the icing base coats. Usually when I paint cookies, I use thinned royal icing which creates a more matte look.

The only real trick to making these is to be absolutely certain that your base coat of royal icing is completely dry before you start painting. If it's not fully dry, it will crack and begin to dissolve from the paint.

Once the painting dried, I piped some heart details with medium consistency red royal icing, using a  bag fitted with a number #1 tip.

So bake some cookies, flood them with royal icing, let them dry, choose your colors and let your creativity flow! It's so satisfying!

Here's how I painted mine, but you should paint yours anyway you like — Experiment and have fun!

Once your cookies are base coated and completely dry, mix colors by putting tablespoons of vodka in small bowls and tint them with gel coloring. The coloring goes a long way so start by adding just a touch at a time until you are satisfied. The colors I mixed were light pink, medium pink, turquoise and yellow.

Go for it by adding the colors one at a time, with a soft brush. Don't overload your brush because the paint goes farther than you think.

After adding the pinks, I decided to let the cookies dry a bit before moving on. It's important that you don't get the cookies too wet.

I decided to add some piped details to mine, but they looked nice without it too.

Let the cookies dry completely before packaging or serving.