Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend enjoying the fall (spring for some of you) sunshine! I definitely made sure to get out even for a short while each day to enjoy the fall colors in the forest nearby – so magical! That combined with cookie decorating and some othercommitments this weekend means the laundry didn’t get finished, but I’ll take that in order to get some cookie decorating in any weekend. I’m especially looking forward to this week because I’ll be secretly delivering these cookies to different people… leaving them in their mailboxes at work and popping a few in the neighbours mailboxes. None of these people follow me here (as far as I know), although a few will be able to put two and two together I think, but it’ll be random Monday surprises for them. As much enjoyment as I get from decorating the cookies it’s even more fun to give them away!
If you’d like to make these too, the techniques aren’t difficult, and I’ll share the how-to steps below.
It was these cookies by Icing Land (Instagram), which inspired me to attempt my own version. They ended up being almost copied, including a similar color scheme – I just loved their design so much! Please check them out on Facebook as well; their cookies are so creative and gorgeous!
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Sugar Cookie Dough
You can find the recipe for thedough here. If you’d like to try chocolate sugar cookies or another recipe, all my cookie recipes can be found here. The plaque cookie cutters are from Coppergifts.com.
Royal Icing
You can find my favoriteroyal icing recipe here. The consistency of icing is key for easy decorating.Click hereto see a YouTube video on finding the right icing thickness. Here are more videos on outlining and flooding etc., if you need some tips on those basics.
What you’ll need:
- Piping Tips
(#1.5, #2, #3) - Piping Bags
- Couplers
- Gold Pearl Dust(FDA approved)
- Paintbrush used for luster dust
- Gel paste colors – I used Wilton’s Buttercup Yellow, Delphinium Blue, Juniper, Aster Mauve and Americolor Deep Pink
- Parchment Paper or Transparency Sheets
- Shortening
- Print caligraphy letters of your choice (I used Lavandaria)
(#1.5, #2, #3)
and 
or 
Instructions:
Step One:
Using a #3 piping tip , outline the cookies shape with royal icing. For detailed decorating tips,this tutorialmay be helpful for you.
Step Two:
With the same icing, flood, or fill in your shape. Igenerally outline and flood right away, but these were larger cookies so needed a dry outline to hold all the icing in.
Step Three:
Let the base dry for at least 6-12 hours. While you’re letting the bases dry, make your royal icing letter transfers. You could also use aKopykake Projector
to project your letters and simply trace them onto your cookie.If you’re new to decorating cookies and don’t recognize some terms, like transfers or transparencies, I have a glossary for you here.
Step Four:
Make the royal icing transfers. To make these letters, simply pipe royal icing onto a transparency sheet (or parchment paper), lightly greased with shortening, and let the icing dry for 6-24 hours. Peel away carefully and you have a royal icing decoration.
Here are a few videos & tutorials where I’ve shown how to make royal icing transfers:
{Video} How to Make Daisy Cookies
Valentine Love Cupcakes
How to Do Royal Icing Floodwork or Runouts
I’ve showed the beginning steps of the letters on Instagram below. I layered the icing to make thicker letters. A thin line of icing will break too easily once dry, so make your letters about as wide as you see pictured. After a few layered letters I changed the piping tip to a #3 to speed up the process. You might want to use a tip #2 if your cookies are smaller.
A few notes for you… I used double-sided tape to tape my paper down onto my gum paste board. Use a hard book if you don’t have this board.Because the letters are delicate make extras in case they break! Also, chose an icing color as your base which is similar to the luster dust color you’ll be using.
Step Five:
Let the letters dry for a minimum of 6-12 hours and then brush lightly with a mixture of gold luster dust and water. Try not to use too much water or tiny pits in the royal icing will form. I’m a little short on my gold luster dust so tried to stretch it a bit with more water so these letters aren’t a thick coat of gold.
Step Six:
Thicken your royal icing colors with more powdered sugar, so that if you dip a spoon into the icing, it will stand straight up. Pipe royal icing flowers, vines and leaves onto your dried base.Adhere letter transfer to cookie with tiny dabs of icing (photo above).
Have fun playing around with different flower patterns and lines!
Let the flowers dry for a few hours and you’re done!
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to drop me a line below in the comment section or on social media. You can find me onFacebook,Google+,Instagram,Pinterest,TwitterandYouTube.
Thank you for your feedback on the woodland cookies from last week! I’ll be doing a tutorial on those soon.
Happy decorating!
xo,
Marian
p.s. I love playing around with photo filters… This one seems to suit this cookie theme… couldn’t resist adding it.
