Decorating Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing (Post #4- New Year's Eve Cookies): Using luster dust to add sparkle to cookies

Claire Andreski
Period 5
Post #4

Hi everyone! For New Year's Eve yesterday, my family had a bunch of friends and family over to celebrate the New Year and so I decided to make New Year's themed champagne glass and bottle shaped cookies. I was really excited to try using something called luster dust which my book outlined to do and I think that the cookies turned out really well! Keep reading to see the results.

First, I read the directions on how to decorate the champagne glasses and bottles and noticed something interesting. Both recipes called for something called "luster dust" which was supposed to be applied near the end and would make the cookies sparkle. Intrigued, I looked to Hession's tool section earlier on in the book to learn more about this decorating item. In a section of the book called "Key Ingredients", there was a paragraph on luster dust, which was titled, "Luster Dust". In it, Hession stated, "Luster dust is much finer than either disco dust or sanding sugar, and it serves two purposes for the designs in this book. First it's an easy way to add a bit of shimmer to a cookie that needs a finishing touch... Second, mixed with a few drops of vodka or lemon juice, luster dust can be painted onto cookies to give them gold or silver metallic detailing" (Hession 21). From what I understood in reading that passage, is that luster dust is a sparkly, fine powder that you would use almost like sprinkles to cover the cookie. I also saw that Hession included directions for how to use luster dust on cookies in a subsection called "Adding Sparkle", in which she described that sparkle can be applied while the icing is wet or dry and that the intensity of the luster dust is magnified if mixed with lemon juice or vodka to create almost a metallic paint (Hession 28-29). I decided that luster dust seemed the way to go for these New Year's Eve cookies, so I looked online and it looked like you could find it at any craft store pretty much, including Michael's, Joann's, and Hobby Lobby. As we were passing a Hobby Lobby, I stopped in and was able to find gold luster dust and also picked up a set of decorating brushes specifically in the cake/cookie decorating aisle. These were from the brand Sunny Side Up Bakery, but there are many other brands that sell these items too. The cookie cutters I got were from Sur La Table.

The decorating brushes and gold luster dust I bought from Hobby Lobby. 

After I had gathered all my materials, I began the process of creating this batch of cookies. First I made one batch of the standard sugar cookie recipe, rolled it out, then used the champagne glass and bottle cookie cutters to cut out my cookies. I then baked the cookies about 6-12 on a cookie sheet, based on the shape, at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Once they were all baked, I placed them on a cookie rack to cool until the next morning. 

One cookie tray of champagne bottles after being baked.

The next day I really began the process of decorating the cookies. I made one batch of royal icing, which I divided into gray, olive green, yellow, and white icing, which I tinted using the Wilton Color Right System. I used a drop of black into a bowl of white frosting for the gray and just a drop of yellow for the yellow because I wanted a light color. To create a deep, olive green, I used 2 drops of blue, 3 drops of yellow, and a drop of brown food coloring. Once I had my colors in order, I placed the piping icings into piping bags with tips. I used a number two Wilton tip for the gray, a number 3 Wilton tip for the green, and a number 5 Wilton tip for the yellow. I first started by outlining all the champagne glasses with the gray piping icing. I followed the first two steps of the design as stated in the book which were, "1: Using the pastry bag of gray icing, outline the bowl of each champagne glass and add a circular rim. 2: Using the squeeze bottle of gray icing, outline and flood the stem of each champagne glass. Let dry for 10 minutes" (Hession 198). I did these steps for all the champagne glasses to outline them and below is what they looked like. 

The outlined champagne glasses.

While the outlines were setting up and drying, I created white flooding icing and put that in a squeeze bottle. After the ten minute drying time was up, I began to flood the glasses with white icing so it looked like there was champagne in them. A good tip that the author mentioned to make them look more realistic is to leave space between the top of the liquid and the cup (Hession 198). 

                                        

Left: Flooding the cookies with white icing to mimic champagne.

Above: The cookies after all being flooded; they needed to dry before luster dust could be added.

While I left those cookies to dry, I began decorating the champagne bottles. First, I created a rectangular outline in the middle where the label would be by using gray, piping icing. I also created a rectangle on the neck of the bottle where the seal might be. I then flooded those areas with white icing after they dried. Then I used the olive green piping icing to outline the areas where the actual bottle would be, below the labels. I left the top part open because I would later pipe yellow icing on as the "gold" label on champagne. 

The outlined champagne bottles. 

After that, I flooded the green sections with green flooding icing. Afterwards, I outlined and flooded the top with yellow, then used the yellow to write 2018 on the label. My cookies were all frosted. Now it was just time to add the luster dust. 

The instructions in the book for both types of cookies was to apply the luster dust when they had dried slightly, so it was a more subtle effect. The author said to let the icing set for about six hours before applying the luster dust (Hession 198). I was a little impatient and only waited about 2-3 hours, but found that it still worked okay. Once or twice though, I pressed too hard the the brush punctured the top of the set icing, revealing a still wet layer underneath. I can see now why I should have waited longer, but I learned it worked fine when I was more gentle and careful. I began using a flat, square shaped brush, but switched to a longer, pointed tip brush which I found worked better for just lightly dusting the luster dust on the cookies. I dusted the gold luster dust all over the "champagne" part of the glasses and on the yellow sections of the champagne bottles. 

Left: Applying the luster dust to a champagne glass cookie.

Above: The finished champagne glass cookies.

A champagne bottle after adding luster dust.

The finished cookies displayed at the party. 

Overall, I really enjoyed decorating this batch of cookies and working with the luster dust. I think that people really liked how they looked and I do too! Would you ever consider using luster dust to decorate a cookie? Do you like how these turned out? Have you ever made themed cookies for a party? 

Thank you for reading and I hope you all had a great New Year's! :) 

Citation: Hession, Julie Ann. 100 Best Decorated Cookies: Featuring 750 Step-by-Step Photos. Robert Rose, 2013.