Difficulty: Beginner
Do you decorate cut out cookies for Christmas only to have them look like they were done by a 5 year old? Do you want them to look like they could have come from a bakery?
I have news for you! It’s not hard to make your Christmas cookies look pretty and professional. With the right tools and techniques your cookies will go from looking like a preschool art project to an artist’s masterpiece.
Supplies
Cut out cookies in snowflake or tree shape (to follow along with me, the techniques can be used on any shape)
Icing, several colors (homemade or store bought)
Piping bags or gallon size zip top bags
Scissors
Piping tips and couplers (not necessary, but makes it easier)
One thing I always do before I start is look at pictures for inspiration. I may look at pictures of iced cookies or drawings of the shapes I’m decorating. You just want to get a general idea in mind. Sometimes you think you know how to draw a snowflake, but then you actually try and it looks like a hot mess. Looking at a picture first will help.
My inspiration was this snowflake napkin.
Prepare gallon bags or piping bags with icing. Cut the tip or corner off the bag and fit with a small round piping tip. If you don’t have piping tips, simply cut a very small hole in the corner of your gallon bag squeeze a little icing out and if it seems too small you can make the hole bigger. Remember that you can always make the whole bigger, but you can’t make it smaller.
Once you have your icing in the piping bags ready to go practice your design a few times on a paper towel, piece of foil or parchment. This will help you get a feel for the icing and help remove any air bubbles. Once you are comfortable you can move to the actual cookies.
If this is your first time piping think simple. Less is more when it comes to your design. If you choose a difficult design you will have to work very slowly to have it turn out well making this a very long and time consuming project.
You want to go with a design that is quick and easy while still looking polished. If you are decorating the same shape of cookie over and over it will become like muscle memory. You’ll be able to keep doing it without thinking. Also the less colors you use per cookie the faster and easier it will be. Switching out colors does take time, so be wise with your choices.
Most importantly have fun. No one expects your cookies to look like they came from a bakery, but if they do look like that after you are done kudos to you. If you want to make your cookies look better, have your kids decorate some and put them on the same tray as yours. Your piped cookies will look that much better, but everyone will still appreciate the effort and enthusiasm put into the kids cookies, so it’s a win, win.
Time to get piping!