Learning to decorate a baked good, whether cake or cookies, is a great hobby to take up because even if you’re really bad, you still get to reap benefits such as eating a lot of cake or cookies. Okay, you also get the satisfaction of watching yourself grow as a decorator, the opportunity to start a little side-hustle if you choose to, and you never have to go through the trouble of finding a local baker on short notice ever again! Today we’re talking cookies specifically and we’ve created a little guide that will help you on your journey. Let’s get started.
(image via: taste of home)
First things first, you’ll want to find a cookie recipe that works for you. Now, this can be a sugar cookie, honeydough cookie, shortbread cookie, lemon cookie, chocolate cookie, it doesn’t matter just as long as the cookie is consistent and once it’s cool, provides you with a good ‘canvas’ to work with. (And is delicious, of course!)
All About Consistency
When you make your icing, you’ll want two different consistencies; you’ll want a batch of icing that is thick, think toothpaste-like consistency, for piping around the edges, and then you’ll want one that is thinner, more of a honey-like consistency to fill in, this is a process known as “flooding”. Some icing batches will be too thick, some too thin, and it’s all okay! Let yourself be a beginner.
Start Small
(image via: betty crocker)
Find a cookie design that you like on Pinterest and attempt to recreate it. When you’re just starting isn’t the time to commit to charging people for their kid’s birthday cookies, just trust us. Find a design you like, buy only the necessary supplies to make that design, then execute it. You’ll learn so much with your first batch of cookies; and while they may be a huge disaster (which is so fine) you may also discover that you’re better at this than you thought! Point is, don’t go out and buy every supply you may ever need because that will be super overwhelming.
Gel > Liquid
When it comes to adding color to your frosting, switch to gel; it’s much easier to be in control of your frosting consistency this way.
Piping 101
Piping is probably not going to feel super natural at first, in fact, your hand will more than likely be shaking, and you will inevitably have to tell yourself that this isn’t espionage, it’s just decorating a cookie. We recommend practicing straight lines, curved lines, corners, and letters before you start decorating a cookie. The more you practice, the more confidence you’ll have once your cookies are ready to be decorated.
Flooding
As you will recall ‘flooding’ refers to filling in your cookie with the thinner frosting; this needs to be done quickly because the frosting dries super fast. It’s important that you fill your cookie without stopping because starting and stopping often leads to unevenly decorated cookies.
Saving for Later?
(image via: birch tree baking)
If you’re not eating all of your cookies in one sitting, store them flat in an airtight container and plop them in the fridge.