Hey Besties! The holiday baking season is upon us! Your mind might be spinning with ideas of what you want to make for your family or offer for your customers! And honestly, the more you look online, the more overwhelming it can become! Sometimes too much inspiration can stifle your creativity, which is why I’m excited about today’s post. Sometimes the most beautiful designs can have the simplest techniques. And while it’s always great to push yourself and develop your skills, there is nothing wrong with embracing fundamental skills. Often times, it is the simplest designs that people love the most which is perfect because they are easier for you to make! So today, let’s look at a few simple cookie platters decorated with simple creativity!
Why Cookie Platters?
While most of the decorated cookies that go out our door and not in platter-style, I always LOVE making cookie platters. There is something about arranging the cookies together that really makes a statement. Maybe it’s because it doubles as a beautiful centerpiece? It can take some strategy and visualization, but when you trust the process, I’m always blown away when it all comes together.
And the endless options for holidays, themes, occasions that we can use the same few cookie cutters for, it’s a fun creative challenge. In today’s cookie platter, I used three cutters from THIS cookie cutter set. I commonly use these three cutters together, as seen in THIS Thanksgiving turkey platter!
And when beautifully packaged, cookie platters have a big WOW factor, which is what we’re all after, right?! I included a tutorial with a video in THIS post which shows exactly how we shrink wrap our cookie platters. It’s a simple way to keep them fresh, safe, secure and beautifully presented!
Cutout Cookie Recipes
Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s make sure you have a delicious canvas. You may, or may not, have a vanilla cutout cookie recipe you love. If not, I encourage you to try THIS one! But beyond vanilla, I really highly suggest you consider one (or many) of the delicious, flavored cutout cookie recipes you can find HERE. All of my recipes are no-chill and no-spread, so they are easy, quick and delish! Why let vanilla have all the fun when you can knock people’s socks off with other amazing flavors?!
And for royal icing, THIS walks you through exactly how we make our royal icing for our cookies every day. The method is simple, but critical to follow, to achieve the perfect results you want! We never have to worry about color bleed, cratering or other common royal icing issues. Cookie decorating is so much more fun that way!
Cookie Platters Decorated For The Holidays
I think one of the things I love about cookie platters is that they don’t need to BE anything. While they certainly CAN create something, like a wreath, turkey or whatever, they can also just be a beautiful color palette. Using complimentary colors and simple techniques, once put together, it becomes a work of art. You literally have endless options and are only limited by your imagination.
In this example, it’s inspired by a snowflake. And I’ll be honest, when decorating it, I wasn’t sure if I was going to love it. But once the icing dried and I constructed the platter, I LOVE it! Trust the process!!!!
Besties, this platter was made with simple flooding and piping! If you need any guidance on flooding cookies, our Flooding 101 tutorial will help! And if you need any pointers on piping, THIS tutorial will help! Otherwise, I added white sanding sugar onto my wet flood for cookies where I wanted sparkle and let dry! TIP: Walmart brand sanding sugar is the BEST because it’s extra fine and super sparkly! 😉 Every cookie I make pays a visit to the dehydrator for all the icing benefits it provides but then I always let my cookies dry overnight before packaging.
The takeaway here is that you could use any color palette and any range of simple techniques, that when put together, create something stunning!
ADDITIONAL Cookie Platters Decorated For The Holidays
Here are a couple additional, simple designs that my daughter has offered in years past that were big sellers! These were made and sold in my daughter’s cottage bakery when she was 14 years old. Is she could do this; you can absolutely do this and even jazz them up more!
Are YOu Inspired?
I hope this quick post featuring cookie platters decorated for the holidays has inspired you to make your own! With one cookie cutter set, you literally have endless options and designs to create stunning cookie art. People LOVE cookie platters since they are so pretty for all their holiday gatherings in addition to being delicious! Let your creativity SHINE!
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