I do not know about you but when you are learning to decorate cookies it can create a lot of frustration when you are first learning. So I wanted to show you some tips and tricks about decorating to hopefully make your time decorating…that much more fun. First of all I got my tips and Tricks from The Simple Sweet Life . Now, I am not a professional so these tips and tricks are all about trial and error, what works for me may not work for you.
1 – You can never have to much royal icing. You should always make more then you think you will need to have. Because let me tell you, it can be hard to match the colors you need perfectly. So your finished product may not be the same color if you have to make several batches while decorating.
2 – The size of the cookie matters. To thin means the cookie will more than likely spread and lose its shape. Some say to use cookies about 1/4 ” but this is personal preference. I would recommend getting your cookies to what you consider perfect before you start decorating.
3 – Freeze your cut out cookies before you bake your cookies. This came after making many cookies and failing nicely. Also, the more flour you use the less likely they are going to spread. Check out one of our favorite Buttery Velvet Cut Out Cookie Recipe .
4 – Play with the way you position your cutters to make some fun “custom” cutters. You can turn a gingerbread man cookie cutter upside down and make a reindeer cookie cutter. You do not always have to use them the same way. Think out of the box!
5 – You need different consistency icing in order to pipe on your cookies. You do not need to pipe and flood your base cookie color. Practice makes perfect in this instance. Stiffer icing, like a 20 second icing can help make icing the color look perfect with flooding or piping a border.
6 – Royal Icing can bleed. I tried one of those fancy things they show on all the cookie shows…where you pipe onto parchment paper and then place it onto an iced cookie..and it bled.
7 – Think outside of the box on decorating. You do not always have to pipe. Try food color and a stamp to stamp onto a cookie. Try using a stencil. There is no end to what you can do to decorate.
8 – Food Markers! They are your new best friend. Invest in some.
9 – Patience. Do not start with the intention of being “amazing” right out of the gate. Expect mess ups. Expect to fail at times. Because without failure you will never learn and grow.
10 – SMILE! We all want to be great and make the fancy cookies to end all fancy cookies. Make this time a happy time. If you do not smile and love what you do, it is going to show in the end.
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Lots of Love!!!