Tutorial: Decorating Christmas Cookies

 I actually made these cookies last year. But here are my best tips on decorating Christmas cookies.

Two essential elements to decorating Christmas cookies. Cookies and frosting. As a kid I always used buttercream. Turns out that doesn't always work that well. So, over time, I came to prefer royal icing. Royal icing is rather liquid and melds together when wet, but dries quite solid and dry. I works best to use them in piping bags without tips. You will only need the smallest of holes in the bag, so only snip a tiny hole.

The cookies should be solid enough that you can pick them up. You can use any cutter you want. If you don't have any, you can freehand them, or follow paper templates. But most Christmas cutters are widely available and not too expensive.

This first cookie is an example of one made all at once. If you cover wet royal icing with another color, the colors will meld together and the surface will be rather flat. First, I outlined the tree with green and filled in the center, making sure it was smooth. Then I add the white stripes to look kind of like snow or tinsel. And made red dots to mimic Christmas balls.

The snowmen I did in stages. I frosted in every second ball of white and let it set before moving on.

The house was really cool. I filled it in with red.

And I added white frosting along the roof and chimney, adding a few drips to create icicles.

And I added windows and a door with snow on top of them.

And finally a wreath with some snow on it as well.

Here's house number 2. I piped some green on the house, the roof with white and the chimney with red trimmed in white.

And I made the door and windows in white.

And another tree with more of a tinsel feel to the white.

With the poinsettas, if you want the petals to look separate, then pipe every other petal at first and let them crust before moving on.

Then, when working on the Santas, I pipe the face part first with ivory.

And I add eyes in that dark green and the red for the hat, but I skip all the white. I will let it crust first.

And I began another snowman by piping the two areas of white and the eyes and buttons.

But once those areas are crusted, I fill in the center snowball with white and pipe the hat in dark green, pipe a scarf with red and the nose with ivory. Since I only made 4 colors of royal icing, I had to improvise a bit with the colors, but in general it worked.

And instead of poinsettas, you can use the same cookies to make snowflakes.

I also made a reindeer with a red bow and green eye.

I finished the poinsetta by filling the other petals with red royal icing and piped a few dots of ivory in the middle.

When letting them dry, it is important to allow them to dry with lots of space. Never stack them when wet.

But I love these sweet cookies.

My kids were really excited about them.

Merry Christmas!

Watch us make these festive cookies on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/ykHb9gwQoSA
Schaut zu wie wir diese weihnachtliche Kekse auf YouTube machen hier: https://youtu.be/OsAfVi1CdWQ