Hey Besties! Here we are, in the middle of January; our holiday cheer has passed! And for those of us in climates like Minnesota, we’ve got a WAYS to go before we’ll be enjoying the warmth again! But if there is one redeeming quality of this frozen tundra, it’s that it is beautiful. Well, not when it starts to melt and everything is wet and dirty! But when there is fresh fallen snow, there’s nothing like it! And while it seems the color blue always dominates winter decorating palettes; we’re switching it up today! These beautiful winter cookies decorated with shades of pink were inspired by the beauty of the season. If you’ve been here before, I’m ALWAYS looking for the silver lining in everything. So today, we’re honoring winter with these stunning cookies!
Recipes
Since our goal in January is to be warm and cozy, our cinnamon sugar cutout cookie felt like a perfect match for this theme. It is a subtle, not overpowering, flavor but gives enough cinnamon spice for that cozy feeling. Yum! The secret ingredient behind this exceptional flavor is THIS cinnamon spice emulsion. It is SO yummy and I use it in all kinds of baked goods!
You can find our recipe for these delicious cookies HERE. As always, it’s no-chill, no-spread and so easy to make! You can literally make, cut and bake these cookies in under 30 minutes! And they are delicious plain or iced.
If you do want to decorate with royal icing, you can find our go-to recipe HERE. It’s so easy to make, easy to work with and the flavor is great! I will mention that we always use Genie’s Dream meringue powder which I believe is a big reason why our icing is so perfect.
Cutters
For this winter-inspired set, I used cutters from different sets to bring the theme together. Here are the links to the cutters used:
- Snowflakes cutter set – I use these cutters all the time and love the variety of shapes and sizes.
- Mitten cutter – Another cutter set I use frequently. I mean, did you see my Christmas sweaters?!
- Coffee Cup – Also used frequently for anything teacher related! 😉
- Plaque cutter – I sounds like a broken record but I use plaque cutters in almost every set. They are perfect for lettering and other centerpiece cookies. There are MANY plaque cutters and sets out there. I particularly like this set since it includes some other commonly used shapes, such as the hexagon, square and rectangle. So, it feels like I’m getting a good bang for my buck! WINNING!
Designs & Techniques
Full transparency: before I ever decorated cookies, I would look at a set like this and have no idea how the cookier made them. It felt overwhelming and daunting! Which is why I really try to break down the steps so cookiers at any level can easily learn how these are achieved. I’m about to drop several different techniques on you, but they are so easy to learn!!
Your first step with these is flooding them. I use a 12-15 second flood consistency, but you will have your own preference. If you are still learning about consistencies, read THIS post, and bookmark it because learning consistencies is the hardest part of this whole process! Once flooded, they will look like this!
You will notice I used a wet-on-wet technique for the mitten while flooding. This is a REALLY simple technique that adds so much character! We have a whole post about wet-on-wet techniques HERE. Otherwise, the snowflakes were simply flooded and the coffee cup was flooded in sections, waiting for each section to crust before flooding the neighboring section. I let these cookies quick set in the dehydrator to get the good, smooth finish I like.
Then, with a slightly thicker consistency (about 20-25 seconds), I added piping details to all the snowflakes. For some, I added sanding sugar when the icing was wet, to give them a pretty sparkle.
Fun Techniques To Elevate Your COokies
For the plaques and coffee cups, I busted out the airbrush! Using THIS snowflake stencil, I added the pink design to the coffee cups and a pearly white to the plaques. I really think adding these easy touches, such as airbrush designs, adds so much character to a cookie set. I don’t do a lot of freehand airbrushing but love to use it with stencils for fun designs.
Lastly, I used THIS stencil to scrape royal icing over my plaques to give the “Winter Wishes” design. If you’re still learning how to do this technique, THIS post, with video included, will help. I LOVE stenciling, whether it’s a phrase or a design, I just adore how quick and easy it is to add fun designs!
Winter Cookies Decorated For You
These winter cookies decorated for you, were so fun to make and turned out just beautiful! It is so fun to use a few different techniques to grow your skills which will definitely elevate your cookies. A technique like stenciling is a very small investment but can open a whole world of design possibilities! I encourage you to keep practicing and building on your skills. You’ll learn with every set and by challenging yourself, you’ll be amazed how quick your skills will develop!
I hope you enjoyed this post all about winter cookies decorated with royal icing! Are you subscribed to receive our weekly newsletter?! Never miss out on a new recipe, technique, product recommendation or Featured Baker!