Cookie Decorating Tips and Tricks

 

No matter the occasion, nothing conjures up special family memories like decorating festive sugar cookies. Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Halloween all give plenty of opportunity to bake and decorate. Here are all our tips and tricks to make any cookie decorating day a success!

Have the Right Sugar Cookie Tools

Besides having these kitchen essentials, adding a couple things to your repertoire for sugar cookie decorating will make a huge difference.

• Several condiment dispensers with very fine tipped lids. Mine are from Wal-Mart, so I could get a really close look at the dispenser tip before I bought them.
• Toothpicks
• Parchment paper
• High quality food coloring
• Chop sticks, popsicle sticks, or small craft dowels
• High quality baking ingredients (especially in your extracts and powdered sugar–this makes a huge difference in flavor)

Sugar Cookies

No matter how beautiful your cookies look they will be worth nothing if they don’t taste great.

I have a wonderful sugar cookie recipe that was given to me in our early days of marriage. My recipe uses butter flavored vegetable shortening and almond extract. So take your favorite recipe and use shortening instead of butter, then switch out the vanilla extract and use almond. Roll your dough a little thicker than usual and bake your cookies so they are slightly under done. They’ll be soft and have an incredible flavor.

Royal Icing

Royal Icing is also crucially important. I am a big fan of using meringue powder instead of egg whites in the recipe. Because no two eggs (especially farm fresh) are exactly the same size, the meringue powder allows me to control the consistency of my icing. I use the icing recipe on the back of the meringue powder container. Tweak it each time, use a little milk instead of water, or different extracts like almond or vanilla (although this will change the color of your icing to off white) for your liquid. I NEVER use water as my liquid, if I do my icing will taste like straight sucrose. As I said before, the better ingredients the better the flavor.

 

 

Create two consistencies of icing. One should be a little thicker and will act as a boarder or barrier around the edges of cookies. The other should be what we call “flood icing.” Make it runny enough to move on its own or with a little prodding from a toothpick. When you add food coloring to the icing, you can use the chopsticks or dowel rods as stirring sticks in the dispenser bottles.

Cookie Cutters and Toppings

Old fashioned metal cookie cutters work best. Plus they look pretty displayed in clear containers on your shelves. Liberally coat them with flour and the dough won’t stick to them. I buy my sprinkles, and other sweet toppings from the baking section at the craft store. Try to get a few novelty types of toppings (heart or start shaped sprinkles for instance) then also dusting sugar and classic sprinkles.

 

Don’t be afraid to make an event out of your sugar cookie day. Sometimes it’s ideal to spend family time making and decorating sugar cookies, really savor the tradition. Or you can have a celebration with friends and have a party. A few months ago, during the holidays, my daughter invited some friends over and had a great time decorating cookies with her friends. She and I picked a theme and loved planning the whole party. Allow me to take you down memory lane and share our Cookie Party Game Plan.

 

Cookie Party Game Plan

Use these ides and suggestions to have a seamless Cookie Decorating Party any time of the year.

Assemble:

• Cookie items, cutters, toppings, ingredients for your dough and icing.
• At least 4 condiment dispensers but possibly more depending on the size of your gathering.
• Parchment paper to create cookie decorating stations.
• Decorations for your party.
• Sweet and salty finger foods for your guests to nibble.
• A festive drink for your guests to sip.
• Celaphane party favor bags big enough to hold a few cookies,
• If you are having a party with kids, one more set of adult hands will really help.

2 Days Before the Party:

1. Make, roll, cut and bake the cookies. Make more than you think you’ll need. Store in an airtight container.

1 Day Before the Party:

1. Set the table.
2. Try using parchment paper or wrapping paper as the table cloth for easy clean up.
3. Lay out party favor bags or boxes.
4. Set your table with decorations, table cards, and place settings.
5. Clean and prep service ware.
6. Make the snacks ahead of time, or just use fancy store bought party mixes.
7. Lay out decorating station items but don’t unwrap or open any containers/dispensers.
8. Make your two royal icings, put them in dispensers and refrigerate overnight

Day of the Party:

1. Get dressed and ready first, you’ll thank me later. Throw on an apron while you are setting up.
2. Dye the royal icing.
3. Open containers and assemble the decorating station.
4. Set out all icings and toppings within easy reach.
5. Make the drinks or set up your drink station (if you are having a hot cocoa bar for instance)
6. Snacks and drinks should be set out too.
7. Create a cookie drying station away from swinging arms and any source of heat.
8. Now you are ready to welcome early guests or grab a quick hearty snack because you may not have time to munch as you host the party.

Welcome your guests, and have a great time!

 

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