Decorating Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing (Post #5- Penguin Cookies): Working with Fondant

Claire Andreski
Period 5
1/28/18

Hi everyone! I can not believe that I am already writing my final blog post! I enjoyed learning more about cookie decorating through this blog and I especially enjoyed making this last batch of cookies. So keep reading if you'd like to see some really cute penguin cookies I made! I would highly recommend them! :)

So for this final batch of cookies, I made sugar cookies the same way as usual, but used a large penguin cookie cutter from Sur La Table to achieve the desired shape.

Some of the penguin cookies after finished with baking.

I baked the cookies until golden brown and let them cool down. While they were cooling, I made a batch of royal icing. With this I created black piping icing, black flooding icing, orange piping icing, and left some white icing which I divided into both piping and flooding icing. Overall, it wasn't to hard to make the frosting, as there were only 3 colors, but one of the challenges of this specific design was creating the black icing. Below are some pictures of the process of creating the black icing. I found that I definitely needed to add more food coloring than I expected, otherwise it looked gray. In correlation with that, I also found out that it helps to have very pigmented food colorings/gels and specifically a black color. Luckily, I had black food coloring, but I think it would be next to impossible to create a deep black if you only had primary colors, unfortunately. Below is the process of how I got my icing to be black if you are interested.

                             

First, I added one to two drops of black food coloring, but I was unsatisfied with the result I got, which was a gray color. I added another drop or two to the frosting and the color deepened and looked closer to what I wanted. I added one more drop and the frosting became the color I desired. :) 

Once all the frosting was colored, I began to pipe the actual design. First, I outlined the bellies of the penguins with white piping icing, then I outlined the whole body of the penguins with black piping icing. 

In the first two pictures, you can see the penguins' white outlines and in the bottom two pictures you can see the full outline in black on the penguin cookies. After these steps were completed, I went on to fill in both outlines with flooding icing. 

Then, I piped on the eyes once the icing had set a bit. The book instructed, "Using white and black icing, pipe a small eye on each penguin" (Hession 146). I tried to follow these instructions and I think I did a pretty good job. I made the eyes a little bigger than the book by accident, but I think it made the cookies look even cuter. :) 

At first, the penguins looked creepy with just the white piped on their eyes. Once I added the pupils, they looked cute.

A penguin with its eye piped on- I think it turned out really cute!

After this, I used the orange piping to add on a few details, which were the feet and the beak. I piped a triangle for the beak and did three dots to represent each foot. After that, it was on to learning a new technique, working with fondant! 

This is a picture of me piping with the orange icing.

I purchased a box of Wilton fondant in the white color from my local Safeway for $7.99. This seemed to be a bit expensive, but once I opened the box up, there was actually a lot of fondant. 

This is the Wilton fondant that I used for this purchase.

Once I took the fondant out of the package, I took off a large piece and rolled it into a ball, then regarded the book on how to proceed. The author stated in a subsection called "Working with Fondant" that, "Because of its sticky nature, fondant should be rolled out on a surface lightly dusted with cornstarch" (Hession 30). I dusted my work surface then read the book on how to color the fondant. On page 30 as well, the author described that you should add a small amount of coloring to start off with, just like you would to color royal icing, then knead the fondant like dough (Hession 30). I followed these directions, deciding to dye my fondant red. Overall, it went well, but you need to be very careful to not dye your hands. Unfortunately, I didn't follow the author's warning to "Wear disposable gloves or your hands will be the same color as the fondant" (Hession 30). You should definitely heed this advice because I stained my hands red when I didn't wear gloves.

 

Above are the stages of mixing the red food coloring into the fondant. In the bottom left picture you can see that I stained my hands a lot by not wearing gloves and I highly regret not wearing disposable gloves. 

After coloring the fondant, I decided to make the fondant scarves and earmuffs that the books showed me how to do. For the scarf, I rolled a "snake" and split it into two parts using a butter knife, with one being slightly shorter than the other. I then attached the smaller section around the neck of the penguin cookie, then draped the longer one down the side of the penguin cookie. After that, I created a pattern on the bottom to look like the fringe of the scarf. I attached it and then I was done! 

                        

For the earmuffs, I rolled out a small ball of red fondant and flattened it and then rolled a very short rope, then attached the rope and pressed the ball onto the rope so that they would stay on. Then the earmuffs were finished!

After that I was finished with the whole batch! Overall, I really enjoy the way the fondant looks and how you can work with it. It is almost like when you used to play with PlayDoh when you were a little kid! However, the taste of the fondant was not my favorite. It was kind of strange and a hard taste to describe. It looks nice overall, but I wouldn't recommend using a ton of it if you are going for a really great tasting cookie versus a great looking cookie. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this whole project and I think that I improved my baking and decorating skills greatly!

My final questions for you are, have you ever worked with fondant? Do you think that you'd ever decorate cookies with royal icing? Do you like how these cookies turned out? 

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

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.

Decorating Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing (Post #3- Polka-dotted teacups, teapots, and umbrellas): Wet on wet icing detailing

Claire Andreski
Period 5
Post #3

Hi everyone! Just last week, I created another batch of sugar cookies which I decorated with royal icing. I feel that so far my attempts have been pretty successful and so I decided to try a different method of piping, which is slightly more difficult, as detailed by my book. I decided to kind of do "rainy day" themed cookies by decorating teacup, teapot, and umbrella shaped cookies with blue, white, and gray/brown royal icing. Keep reading to see the results!

So first I baked my sugar cookies after creating the dough and using cookie cutters to cut out the desired shapes. I set them on a drying rack to cool and the next night was when I decorated them. So yet again, I made a big batch of royal icing and once it was the right consistency (as described by my book and as I detailed in my first post), I stopped mixing it and began to separate it into different bowls to create the different colors. I decided to go with a blue/turquoise background for the cookies, so I put a majority of the frosting in a bowl and used drops of blue, yellow, and brown food coloring until the color was how I wanted it. I then took some of that icing and thinned it out with water, so that I had both piping and flooding icing for the cookies, as the background and main shape would be blue. I left the white icing as it was, but I did create a bowl of thinned out (flooding) icing that was white so that I could use that to create the polka dot pattern later on. I also tinted some of the white flooding icing light brown to be the "tea" in the teacups.

Once I had all my icings ready, I put them into piping bags and squeeze bottles as usual. I outlined most of the teacup cookies with turquoise piping icing, then regarded the book on which steps to take next. I would be using a new technique called "Wet-on-Wet Detailing", which the author defined as, "When you add details or a design in a different color on top of wet icing..." (Hession 28). With this definition in mind, I proceeded.

 

Many of the teacup cookies outlined and ready to be filled in. 

After many of the cookies were outlined, I began to work with one at a time to flood the main part of the cookie with turquoise icing and then pipe white polka dots on top of that icing. I had to work quickly and on just one cookie at a time because the book mentioned that the technique (wet on wet detailing) only works while the base layer of frosting is still wet (Hession 28). I used both turquoise and white flooding icings to create the polka dot design as the book said. Some tips to creating polka dots that were mentioned were in a section named "Wet-on-Wet Detailing". Two of the most relevant and important tips stated by the author regarding this technique was, "It is best to use two-step icing or flooding icing for a wet-on-wet design, as piping icing is generally too thick for the design to settle correctly. If you are adding a polka-dot design, hold your squeeze bottle straight up and down over the cookie instead of at an angle" (Hession 28). This information really helped my technique and I was able to create what I think is a pretty good polka dot design. I found that it was also important to try to squeeze the icing out with the same amount of pressure and the same amount of time to ensure polka dots of about the same size. It definitely wasn't perfect, but I had success when I really took the time to pipe on the polka dots. 

The "wet-on-wet detailing" technique used to pipe the polka dots. It was important that the icing was still wet while the details were piped on.

I continued using this technique to create polka dots on all the cookies, then used the pipe and flood method to pipe the plate below the teacup, the handles of the umbrellas, and the "tea" in the teacups. 

Outlining the teapots and the umbrellas, while regarding the book. 

The finished cookies drying on the drying rack. 

I am really pleased with how these cookies turned out and I feel that this new technique I learned will be really useful in future cookie designs and that it looks very cool! How do you think these cookies turned out? Would you try this technique? Do you think a different pattern such as stripes would have looked better or do you like the polka dots? 

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

Decorating Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing (Post #2- Thanksgiving pumpkin cookies): Piping details on top of a basic shape

Claire Andreski
Period 5
Post #2

Hi everyone! I'm back again with another post about using royal icing to decorate sugar cookies. :) I was pretty happy with how my first batch turned out (you can see the results in my first post) and so I decided to try again with a different theme, cookie shape, and skill. I decided to make cookies for Thanksgiving and I think that they were a huge success! I was very glad to hear that the guests enjoyed them and I think the design turned out pretty well too. :) Continue reading to see the pumpkin cookies I created!

I decided to go a little simpler, shape wise, from the last cookies because I had only 2-3 hours before we needed to leave to go to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving. I used skills learned from my previous post, such as the outline and flood method, but expanded my knowledge of piping details on top of other layers of frosting. First, I made the same cookie dough recipe (leaving out the almond extract), cut the dough out with a pumpkin cookie cutter and baked the cookies, making sure to bake the exact time the book specified to ensure fully cooked cookies that weren't so dry. I then made another batch of royal icing and divided that into 3 bowls. In one bowl I made thick orange frosting, in another I dyed the frosting the same color making sure to thin it out more (this was the flooding icing), and in a third I dyed the piping (thick) icing brown for the little stems I piped on at the end. Then I put the icings in pastry (piping) bags and began decorating. I first outlined all the pumpkin shapes with the orange, piping icing.

 One of the pumpkin cookies outlined with orange, piping icing.

Then I proceeded to flood all the pumpkin cookies with the thinned out (flooding) icing that was orange. I used a toothpick as a tool to help me spread the icing in an even layer. 

Flooding a pumpkin cookie- using a toothpick was very helpful!

Pumpkin cookies that had been outlined and flooded had to dry before other details could be added.

Then, once I was finished piping and flooding, I went back to the cookies that had first been frosted because they had dried and began to pipe the details according to the book. Hession stated, "Transfer reserved orange icing to a pastry bag fitted with a #2 tip. Pipe a border around each pumpkin. Pipe 2 curved lines on each side of center on each pumpkin, as shown" (Hession 79). These directions were helpful, but I think that her pictures illustrated her point even better, so I regarded the pictures as I piped the curved lines on top of the pumpkin cookies. 

 Piping the lines on top of the pumpkin cookies. 

I went down each row of cookies on the cookie rack, completing the piping of the curved lines to give the pumpkins their distinct shape. After that, I piped the brown icing in a rectangle for the stems and I was done! :)

A picture of the finished pumpkin cookies.

I found that these cookies took a lot shorter time to decorate than the French cookies, partially because the number of cookies was fewer, but also because using the sort of assembly line production  method Julie Ann Hession recommended in her book really made the process go by faster. She discussed how doing a whole cookie at a time slows your whole process down and that it is of course fine to decorate one part of all the cookies one cookie after the other (Hession 34). I definitely took this to heart and reaped the benefits! In terms of technique, you can definitely see that some of the lines were wobbly, but I learned that applying even pressure to the piping bag, not putting the tip too close to or far away from the surface of the cookie, and making sure the cookies had fully dried were all crucial to the clean, desired look. As I piped more and more, the lines began to look better and I think that I could pipe other curved or straight lines on future cookies better now because of this practice I got. According to my book, this type of piping is called "detail work",  specifically wet-on-dry detailing, which Hession discussed in a section of the book called, "Wet-on-Dry Detailing". She stated that, "Detail work adds another layer of texture to a cookie when more icing is piped on top of icing that has already set" (Hession 28). This is definitely true and gives a very pleasant, almost 3D look to the cookies. I would highly recommend this method if you want to decorate cookies that are an object with a unique texture in real life! 

Would you try this royal icing technique on cookies? Have you ever made cookies with a similar "3D" effect? What desserts did you have at Thanksgiving?

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

Decorating Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing (Post #1- French designs): Precise Piping and Creating Multiple Colors

Claire Andreski
Period 5

Last week, I made my first batch of sugar cookies for this project and decorated them with royal icing, as is the focus of my project. I decided to try out two of the designs featured in the section "Vive la France" of my book, 100 Best Decorated Cookies by Julie Ann Hession, and to bring them into my French class to try. The two designs that I attempted to recreate were a French flag cookie and an Eiffel Tower cookie which both looked very unique and challenging to me. I first made the basic sugar cookie recipe (and doubled it) so I would have enough cookies for my class. I used an Eiffel Tower cookie cutter that I had purchased at Sur La Table, as well as a rectangular cookie cutter for the flags. To dye the icing the proper colors of the flag, I used food coloring found in the Wilton Color Right system which you can find at Michael's or Joann's stores. I found these colors to be very pigmented and to work very well for the project. 

Eiffel Tower cookies finished baking

Now, to the actual decorating part. I learned from my book, that one of the best ways to ensure a great looking cookie decorated with royal icing, is to create icings with different consistencies and to use each in different, beneficial ways. Hession states, "When you're using royal icing for designs in this book, it will be one of three consistencies: piping icing, flooding icing, or two-step icing (my personal favorite)" (Hession 23). She went on to explain that piping icing is a very thick icing that you often use to outline a shape before filling in that shape with the same color of flooding icing, which is slightly more fluid, resulting in this type of icing spreading and filling most of the cookie without assistance. Then she explained how to create two-step icing and that it can be used both to outline and flood cookies (Hession 23-24). It was important for me to read carefully about these icings and how they are used because in creating both the flag and Eiffel Tower cookies, it was necessary to use the flooding technique after outlining in piping icing. So, I first created a big batch of royal icing, waiting until the icing held stiff peaks after mixing all ingredients in (meringue powder, powdered sugar, light corn syrup, and water). 

 The batch of royal icing I made

Then I separated the icing into different bowls and dyed the icing into the different colors using the food coloring from the Wilton Color Right box. I used the red, crimson, blue, yellow, and black food colorings, mixing different amounts until the colors were where I wanted them and seemed to look correct. After I had created red, navy, and gray icings, I took some icing out of the red, navy, and white (main) bowl and thinned them with water to create flooding icing according to Julie Ann Hession's instructions. She said that, "To reach flooding consistency, add liquid (either water or lemon juice) to piping icing 1 teaspoon (5 mL) at a time, stirring after each addition" (Hession 23). I followed these directions, using water, and found that 1-2 teaspoons thinned the icing to just the right consistency as described in her book, to the point where it could pass the "ribbon test" she described in the book. 

The piping and flooding icings separated into different bowls. 

After I had my icings ready, I fitted them into piping bags with different, round piping tips, corresponding to whether it was flooding or piping icing (I put smaller tips with piping icing for the outlining/details which needed to be more precise and bigger tips with the flooding icing). Then I outlined the shape of the Eiffel towers and the French flag into rectangles by color. Then I flooded with the corresponding color. For the Eiffel towers, I outlined the whole shape and flooded with white, then went back on top with gray piping icing for the details. 

 The French flags and the first Eiffel Tower cookie on the drying rack. 

Working on piping the Eiffel Tower design like the book. 

Close up of the piping on an Eiffel Tower cookie.

In piping these cookies, I found some things out that I had not known before. I learned that you have to work quickly with the icing because the royal icing began to harden quickly, which I discovered when the tip of my piping bag became blocked by hardened icing. I poked it with a toothpick and the problem was solved, so it was not too big of a deal, but is just something I had and will have to keep in mind. It could affect your decorating if you need to pipe something on while the icing is still wet and it dries when you might not expect it to. I also learned that I could thin out the flooding icing even more because although it spread out, I had to use a toothpick quite a bit because the consistency was a little thicker than I believe it was supposed to be. I was worried of thinning out the icing too much because in the book Julie Ann had warned, "If you have a heavy hand with the water or lemon juice, your icing may be too thin" (Hession 34). So for next time, I will thin the flooding icing out just a tiny bit more for easy of piping. In addition, I felt that my cookies were a bit overbaked, so I realized that the baking time listed was more important to follow than the actual color of the cookies. Lastly, I realized that it is very important to make some extra icing because I just had enough for 32 cookies and was starting to worry at the end about running out of icing. These are all things I will take into consideration for my next batch of cookies. :) 

Have any of you made royal icing before? Did you use the pipe and flood method or a different decorating method? What is your favorite way to decorate cookies?

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