icing

How to Pipe Perfect Icing

February 26, 2018

I have taught dozens of cookie decorating classes. Even before teaching strangers, I was teaching my friends how to decorate cookies. And from all of those experiences, there is one thing I see people struggle with most. And, not to mention, something that I struggled with for a long time.

How to pipe perfect icing.

What do I mean by that?

A perfectly iced cookie is one with a flat, even layer of icing that perfectly covers every single inch of the surface of the cookie. If you go to a bakery where they sell decorated cookies, follow cookie decorators on Instagram, or pin decorated cookies on Pinterest, then you are probably familiar with what I am talking about.

Actually, in order to describe what I mean, maybe it’s best to show you what a perfectly iced cookie IS NOT.

The three images above all demonstrate that lumpy, bumpy, uneven icing that I am referring to. The bumps are pretty obvious in the pumpkin cookies, but I promise they are there in the star cookie, also!

And these three cookies demonstrate that flat, even, and thick layer of icing that now comes naturally thanks to my four tips below.

How to Pipe Perfect Icing

Tip No. One:

Outline your entire cookie with either piping consistency icing or flood consistency icing.

THEN WAIT!

Yes, waiting is trick numero uno. You want your outline to harden slightly before filling it with the cookie (you only need to wait about 1 minute for piping consistency icing and 2-3 minutes for flood consistency icing). This creates a barrier for your fill icing so that you don’t have to worry as much about over filling and icing dripping down the sides. Also, by filling with more icing, you are ensuring that you have a perfectly flat surface.

Tip No. Two:

Fill the outline you have just created with flood consistency icing so that almost no cookie is showing underneath.

As you will know from my Royal Icing post, flood consistency icing is icing that flows back into itself in about 10 to 15 seconds after running a knife over the surface. To achieve a perfectly flat surface, I tend towards 10 seconds.

10-second icing will be so fluid that the icing will just start to run together and fill the entire surface area you created with your outline without you even having to touch it.

Which leads me to tip number three…

Tip No. Three:

Touch the icing sparingly.

When you watch my videos, you will see me use a scribe tool (that yellow thing in the top right corner) to move the icing around to help fill the outline. I try to do this as little and as quickly as possible.

If you have done trick number two correctly, you will need to do very little work at this point. The icing should be almost completely covering the cookie with little help from you.

You may wonder why this is such a problem. Well, let me tell you!

The icing starts to dry immediately when it’s exposed to the air. After about a minute, the icing will start to develop a skin. If you continue to move the icing around after this point, it will no longer flow back into an even surface. You will start to get drag marks and bumps. Definitely not the look you are going for.

Tip No. Four:

Pop the bubbles.

Inevitably, the icing will have a few air bubbles in it. Tapping or shaking the cookie will expose the bubbles on the surface. Use a sharp object to pop them, otherwise, they will look like blemishes on the top of your cookie once the icing has dried.

Not cute.

What Not to Do

Most of the tricks are pretty easy to understand. But it’s trick number two that holds people up. No matter how many times I tell people, “fill the cookie so that no cookie is showing underneath”, they tend to under-fill the cookie which results in a lumpy bumpy mess.

What happened in the cookie above is that 1) I didn’t add enough icing. Because of that, 2) I spent too much time messing with the icing to fill in the outline.

In the last picture, you can see the drag marks that I made in the cookie just trying to move the icing towards the edge.

Okay, I also have one other “what not to do” and that is to not use a knife or spatula to fill the cookie. This is not a technique that I use and I don’t want to use someone else’s picture and call them out, so you will just have to picture it yourself.

What I have seen some cookie decorators do is outline their entire cookie like in trick number one, above. Then they pour/spread the flood icing with an offset spatula. Sure, it’s fast and easy. And it may even work if you just have one large area like a circle, square, etc. But once you start adding in other smaller areas (the pumpkins are a good example), you are asking for trouble. The spatula spreads the icing too thin that you will see every single imperfection in the cookie as well as any others created by the icing.

Pros and Cons

There are some pros and cons to this technique.

I think the pros are pretty obvious:

A flat, even surface
No lumps, bumps, or bubbles
It is faster because you can employ the assembly line method (outline all cookies, then fill all cookies)
A thicker layer of icing

However, the cons may not be quite so obvious:

It’s not the best for beginners. This is because you can’t adjust the outline after you fill cookie. This is one of the main reasons I didn’t use this technique earlier, and why I don’t teach it to new students. If you are not used to piping royal icing, it may be very hard to pipe right on the edge of the cookie. By outlining and then filling right away, you can make corrections and adjustments to your outline if you don’t like it.
You can see the outline. If you look at the second set of photos, you can actually see the outline of the cookie. Because the outline is either a different consistency or already dried icing, the fill icing won’t totally blend in. If this is something that bothers you, then this technique may not be for you.

Summary

Well, that was lots of information for a fairly simple subject. I tend to do that sometimes. So in case you glossed over most of the content and just want the summary version, here are the highlights:

Outline the cookie and let it dry for 1-2 minutes.
Fill the cookie so that you can see almost no cookie underneath. Don’t underfill!
Spend less than 30 seconds spread the icing around.
Pop any bubbles on the surface.
Don’t use a spatula to spread icing onto the cookie.

I can almost guarantee that these tips and tricks will help you pipe perfect icing. I have seen such an improvement in my own cookies because of them. Since I was pretty much self-taught, they took me a couple years to master, but now I am sharing them with you so you don’t have to waste your time!

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The Best Cream Cheese Frosting

January 23, 2017

You may be surprised to know that I am not a huge fan of frosting. Whenever I get a slice of cake, I will typically avoid the frosting completely, or only eat a bit of it. It’s probably why I prefer naked cakes over any other kind of cake. That and they are so much easier to frost!

There is one exception to the rule, however, and that is cream cheese frosting. I love cream cheese frosting! It’s most likely because it’s not super butter or overly sweets. It’s just the right amount of creaminess, tartness, and sweetness.

I made this particular batch of cream cheese frosting to go along with some red velvet cupcakes, which I will share with you soon! But since I use my favorite cream cheese frosting recipe in a couple other recipes I will be sharing soon, I thought I would kick things off with this one!

If you have never made cream cheese frosting before, it is super simple. All I do is beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. That’s it! Unlike Swiss- or Italian-meringue buttercream, there is no labor intensive step of whipping up a finicky meringue or boiling sugar. Just dump it all into a bowl and mix!

Because I was just making cupcakes, I halved my normal recipe to have just enough frosting for 12 cupcakes (and a little extra for tasting). If I were making a 2 layer cake, I would make a full recipe. And for a 3-4 layer cake, I would have done one and 1/2 to two times the full recipe. Fortunately, this is a very easy recipe to halve or double!

This frosting is not only perfect for red velvet cupcakes, it would also be great on your classic chocolate cupcake for an unexpected twist. It’s also great on carrot cake, hummingbird cake, strawberry cake…really just about anything! Or if you are like me, you can just eat it straight out of the bowl. No cake needed!

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The Perfect Christmas Cookies

November 25, 2016

I’m sharing everything you need to know to make the perfect Christmas cookies!

By now it’s probably clear that I like to make cookies. They are my go to treat whenever I have to bring something to a party, especially during the holidays. In the last couple years, I have dedicated more and more time to not just baking cookies but decorating them, too! I even teach classes on cookie decorating through a local Charlotte company, SkillPop. Not only is it fun for me to make them, I get love giving them to other people, knowing that they will be enjoyed!

It’s also clear to me that I am not alone in this. I see a MAJOR uptick in traffic to my cookie and icing recipes this time of year. And because I get so many questions about cookie decorating, I thought I would write down all my tips and tricks for you guys so you can not only make the perfect Christmas cookies, but awesome cookies year round!

Be prepared, I have basically written a novel on cookie decorating. I have broken it down into the basics: the dough, the icing: and the decorating. I have linked to a lot of my recipes and other products that I use and recommend to make your cookie decorating experience a bit easier. Know that my recipes and products are not necessary for delicious and beautiful cookies. But they will help.

The Dough

The dough is the foundation for the perfect Christmas cookie. For just about all my cookies I use my all time favorite sugar cookie recipe. The reason I love this recipe so much is that the cookies hold their shape perfectly, which means whatever they looked like when you cut them out is pretty much how they will look when they come out of the oven. That is key for decorating cookies, because then you have a better guide for outlining your cookie – you aren’t trying to guess what the original shape was.

I get a lot of compliments on these this cookie recipe. While they aren’t super soft cookies, they aren’t crispy either. I try not to over bake them – taking them out of the oven at the first signs of browning – which ensures that they stay nice and tender.

To make sure I have evenly shaped cookies every time I use a nice big rolling pin (I recently bought this rolling pin and absolutely LOVE it) and these rolling pin bands. I absolutely swear these bands and tell all my friends (and cookie decorating students) to get them. They ensure that the dough rolled out to a consistent thickness so that each cookie is exactly the same. And in case you are wondering, I use the largest (blue) band to roll out my cookies.

I also prefer to use the coated metal cookie cutters (like these, these, and this gift set that I bought mainly for the cookie spatula) because they are easier to clean and don’t rust. But I have cookie cutters of all types in my collection and tend to use whatever has the best shape. A tip to ensure that the cookie cutters don’t stick to the dough and potentially warp the cookie shape is to dip it in a pile of flour first, then cut out the dough.

I also like to roll out my dough on a sheet of parchment paper. This helps me use less flour so that the dough doesn’t stick to the counter tops and makes it a lot easier to lift off the cut out cookie.

Why you shouldn’t use store bought dough

A lot of people ask me if they can just use store bought dough. The answer is, of course you can – you can use whatever sugar cookie recipe you like best. HOWEVER, your cookies aren’t going to come out the same. Store bought dough and cookie mixes (as well as some other recipes) contain leavening agents (baking soda, baking powder, etc) in it which make the cookies softer, but they will also lose their shape when baked. See the example below.

I rolled out a very popular brand of sugar cookie dough the exact same way I cut out the cookies in the first picture in this post (the exact same thickness). Once the cookie came out of the oven, it was almost unrecognizable.

I know making your own dough can be a lot of work, but I promise you, it is worth it! I tend to make big batches of it and store it in the freezer (wrapped in plastic wrap and then bagged in a zip top freezer bag) this time of the year because I know I will go through lots of it.

Make the dough your own

Another added plus to making your own dough is that you can make it whatever flavor (and color) you like by adding various spices and flavorings. During the holidays, I love to add cinnamon and nutmeg to my cookies for that nice holiday spice flavor, or even make chocolate sugar cookies like you see above.

This year I developed 12 new sugar cookie recipes perfect for Christmas, which I published in my Christmas Cookie Guide.

Making Cookies in Advance

During the holidays, we tend to make LOTS of cookies. Which means, if you are trying to do it all in one day, you will be working for hours! Fortunately, you can make the dough and even bake the cookies well in advance. Here’s what I do:

If I am just making the dough in advance, I wrap it up in plastic wrap and then store in a freezer zip top bag and keep it in the freezer until I am ready to cut out the cookies. I just let the dough sit out on the counter for a couple hours to thaw before rolling it out. The dough will keep in the freezer for a month.

If I am baking the cookies in advance, I will roll out the dough and bake as normal. Then, once they are cooled, I will stack them in a freezer zip-top bag (sometimes 2) and then store them in the freezer until I need them. The cookies will last in the freezer for a couple weeks, if not longer. I like to double bag them if I think they will be in there a while.

The Icing

Okay, so the sugar cookies are probably the part that most of you guys have down. You all have made cookies before so you are pretty much pros! It’s the icing that may be new to you.

I have shared my recipe for my favorite royal icing previously. The main difference between royal icing and your normal icing is the meringue powder (which can also be purchased at your local craft store). It is essentially processed egg whites and when added to powdered sugar and water, it makes the perfect icing for cookie decorating. I forms a nice flat surface on the cookie that hardens perfectly so that the cookies can be stacked and packaged without causing any damage. It can also be made thicker to make more detailed designs, like dots, letters, stripes, flowers, etc.

To color my icing, I prefer to use gel food coloring (here is my favorite brand) because it is super pigmented and won’t water down the icing as much. But no matter what, remember: a little goes a long way! Don’t go overboard with this stuff!

There are two types of icing that I use most often: flood consistency and piping consistency. They are the exact same recipe I linked above, but one uses less water than the other. One other distinction about them is that flood consistency icing takes a few hours to dry completely. Sometimes I like to let them sit overnight. The piping consistency icing will only take about 30 minutes to an hour. Just keep them in mind as you start packing up all your pretty cookies.

Flood Consistency Icing

The perfect flood consistency icing is icing that settles back into a flat surface within 10 to 15 seconds after you drag a spoon or toothpick across the surface. I use flood consistency icing about 90% of the time. It is what I use to outline and fill (or flood) all my cookies. It is thick enough that it won’t fall over the edges of the cookies, but thin enough that it creates a nice even surface.

To get it to just the right consistency, I add a little water at a time using a spray bottle (if I am working in small batches) or a teaspoon (if I am working in big batches). I add enough water until it starts to feel like its getting a little bit runny. Then I start counting. Yes, I still have to count to 15 every time I make icing so I am sure it’s perfect!

Piping Consistency Icing

Piping consistency icing is a bit thicker that flood consistency icing. It is what I use to add detail to a cookie. Typically I add detail once the first layer of icing has dried enough that I can pipe right on top. I don’t have an exact formula for piping consistency icing, and sometimes I want it thicker or thinner depending on what I am using it for. Generally, it will fall off the back of a spoon into a soft peak or mound, but not settle into a flat surface. In the cookie above, I used piping consistency icing to make the string of lights. I also use it to write letters, make borders, or other precise details.

I also have this handy video of the process I use to make the icing the right consistency. You can see how thick it is when it’s piping consistency (I actually ended up thinning it down even more than what’s in the video, but it’s pretty close), and how thin it is when it’s flood consistency.

Making Icing in Advance

Just like with the cookies, you can make the icing in advance, too. However, not at far in advance. If possible, I like to make my icing the same day I am using it. However, for big projects, that may not easy to do.

If you want to make the icing days (or even weeks) in advance, I recommend that you make the icing but DO NOT thin it down at all. Spoon the icing in an air tight container than cover the icing with plastic wrap. The plastic wrap should be touching the icing so that no air is between the plastic wrap and the icing. Then cover it with a lid and place in the fridge or freezer. You will have to let this come to room temperature before you thin it down or use it.

If you want to make the icing just 1 day in advance, you could thin down a big batch of icing to flood consistency and store in a bowl or container the same way I described above. Then, when you are ready to decorate, just give the icing a stir and color as normal. Flood consistency icing does not keep very well because the water will start to separate from the rest of the icing.

Decorating

Now we have our cookies and our icing, so the fun can begin!

Outlining and Flooding

The first step in most of my cookies is outlining and filling the cookies. I start by outlining the cookie as close to the edge as I am comfortable, then filling in the outline with the same flood consistency icing. I like to fill in the outline so that there is almost no cookie showing underneath. Then I use a toothpick, or scribe tool, to move the icing around in circular motions to get an even layer of icing.

Here’s a tip I tell everyone, when you are piping your icing, lift the tip of the piping bag up and just let the icing fall onto the cookie. Don’t drag the icing across the surface (you can watch me here). You won’t get a nice straight line if you do it that way.

Wet on Wet Piping

One of the techniques I use a lot is called the “wet on wet” techniques. That is when I pipe wet icing directly onto the icing I just piped. By doing so, the “fresh” icing settles into the first layer of icing. For instance, in the picture above, I piped the white snowflake immediately onto the blue icing so that it completely blended into the first layer creating a cohesive surface.

When you pipe wet icing onto wet icing, it also gives you some freedom to manipulate it a little to get just the right shape. In the picture of the Christmas light cookie, I piped an oval of white icing onto the red, then used my toothpick to drag one edge out to create that tear drop shape.

I also use this technique to make polka dots (like the cheeks of the gingerbread men, above), stripes, scallops, etc.

Adding Details

The cookies really start to come together for me when I add the little details. This almost always done using piping consistency icing, described above, because it creates sharp lines, dots, or other texture.

To add the details, I wait for the first layer of icing to crust over. Usually this takes about an hour. If I am adding lots of detail I will sometimes wait overnight so that I don’t mess up the first layer of icing. Then I just pipe my designs right on top.

Marbling Technique

I love sharing this technique with people because its looks awesome on the cookie but its actually really easy to pull off. You can see in the purple cookies above, that there is this really pretty swirl effect going on behind the gold ‘M’. It probably looks like it took a lot of time and effort to pull off. Nope, not at all. In fact, it was probably easier than outlining and flooding the cookies.

I start with a bowl of flood consistency icing, then I pipe on contrasting color (or 2 or 3) in a haphazard design. Then I dip my cookie onto the surface and lift straight up, letting all the excess icing drip off. I sometimes twist the cookie a bit to make more of a swirled pattern. Then I just set my cookie out to dry. If there are any air bubbles, I will tap the cookie on the surface to get them to pop.

Easy right? I think these would look really pretty with a mixture of reds and greens for the holidays. Or you can just do red and white to make them look like peppermint!

My preferred supplies

You don’t need anything special for cookie decorating. In fact, most of the time I use plain old zip top bags. Like the cheap, generic brand zip top bags. Every once and a while, if I feel extra fancy I use piping bags (like these or these), which really aren’t fancy at all. If I want to make sure I have perfect lines, dots, or other decorations (like leaves or roses), I use a piping tip. I bought this case years ago, but I tend to use my Wilton #2 and #3 most often.

So there you have it, pretty much everything I know about decorating cookies. I hope this will help you create your own masterpieces this holiday season!

P.S. In an effort to be fully transparent, some of the links used in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you were to purchase one of the products I listed, I will receive a very small commission. All proceeds from this post will be used to make more cookies.

The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe

May 2, 2016

[UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 24, 2016]

I have been fiddling with my sugar cookie dough recipe for the past couple months trying to find the best dough for decorating cookies. Trust me, there was nothing wrong with my old recipe. It is still a great sugar cookie dough, but I wanted to make a dough that kept its shape when baked but wasn’t as hard as a rock (you know what I’m talking about!). All it took was a couple tweaks to my basic sugar cookie recipe to make an even better cookie dough!

So what’s different? Well, there is no baking powder. I hate it when my sugar cookies grow in the oven, completely losing their shape. Even though the old recipe had very little of the leavening agent, they puffed up too much for me. So out it went!

The other change is the addition of powdered sugar. The powdered sugar makes the cookies lighter and smoother. Since I eliminated the leavening agent, I didn’t want the cookies to be so dense. While testing of the recipe, I tried making this dough with ALL powdered sugar, but I missed the texture from the granulated sugar. It was almost too smooth and way too sweet. The resulting recipe is a combination of both granulated and powdered sugars that still has a nice texture and is still relatively soft.

Now that I have all the changes out of the way we can get to making some cookies! I like to mix my butter and sugar together until it’s nice and fluffy. This takes about a minute on a medium high speed in my Kitchen Aid. Then I gently mix in the egg and extracts (my favorite combination is vanilla and almond). Next is the flour, which I mix in one cup at a time, again until it’s barely combined. The less mixing the better.

The tricky part about this recipe is that sometimes I add more or less flour. While 2 1/2 cups is what I used most often, there are times when I only add 2 1/4, or sometimes 2 3/4. Bakers will understand that sometimes you just know how a dough or batter should look or feel. I know what this dough should feel like when it’s perfect. For some of you, that is the worst thing you could hear! But don’t worry, I have an easy way to check the dough! I poke it!

In the first photo, I have only mixed in 1 1/2 cups of flour. See how the dough just sticks right to my finger? Not ready! So I add 1/2 cup more, still sticking to my finger when I gently press it into the dough. I add my last 1/2 cup and try again. It’s perfect! Hardly anything sticks to my finger, but the dough still feels a bit tacky. THAT is what I am going for. If anything were to stick to my finger, I would only add 1/4 cup at a time until I got it right!

Once the dough is formed, I turn it out onto some plastic wrap to wrap it up and put it in the fridge. Its good to let the dough rest and all the flavors to meld, but sometimes I don’t have that kind of time. Because this dough is pretty stiff, it can be rolled out immediately and does not need to be chilled first.

Speaking of rolling out the dough, I like to use rolling pin bands (or I found this cool rolling pin that does the same thing!) to make sure that my cookies are all evenly thick. I like my cookies to be as thick as possible, so I use the thickest band, about 1/4 inch.

One other thing that I didn’t actually demonstrate in the picture above, but I would highly recommend is to roll out your dough on some parchment paper using as little flour as possible. Because the dough is already pretty dry, adding more flour will make the cookies crack in the oven. I just sprinkle down enough flour to keep the rolling pin from sticking. This will ensure that your cookies are perfectly smooth and ready to ice!

After a quick bake, these cookies are ready to be enjoyed or to be decorated with royal icing. Not only are they the perfect canvas for some sugar art, they taste delicious. I personally love the taste of the almond extract, but of course, you can add whatever flavorings you like and make these cookies your own!

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Brown Sugar Cookies

September 29, 2014

There are lots of flavors that are synonymous with Fall, like pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and caramel. One that is probably lower down on that list is brown sugar. Even though it may not be as trendy and pumpkin spice, brown sugar is in a lot of Fall’s best treats! Apple pie, pecan pie, chocolate chip cookies, sweet potato casserole. I’m sure there are more. But because it is Fall’s unsung hero, I decided to make a brown sugar cookie. Which is essentially exactly like a sugar cookie, but made with brown sugar.

It might seem like a small change to a simple recipe, but by switching to brown sugar, the cookies are more moist and have a carmel-like flavor. They just taste “warm”, if that makes sense. They are truly wonderful and Fall’s perfect cookie.

And because of that, I thought it would be fitting to make a few in the shape of something quintessentially “Fall” – changing leaves.

Just like normal sugar cookie dough, I like to chill my dough over night so it rolls out a bit easier. I roll the dough out to about 1/4-1/2 inch and then bake them at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes.

To decorate the cookies, I made 15 second icing in 3 different color: golden yellow yellow and orange), burnt red (red and brown), and green. I first outlined the edge of the cookie, then flooded the cookie with all 3 colors. Using a toothpick, or in my case, a skewer, spread the icing around the cookie as well as mixing some of the colors together, like you would see in a Fall leaf. Then let dry for at least an hour or overnight.

The acorns are even easier! Pipe around the top portion in dark brown, then flood that section. Then pipe around the bottom section in light brown and flood it. Too add the white shine, pipe a small line in the wet icing and let it sink in. Do the same with brown icing to make the shadow on the bottom.

The acorns are definitely my favorite and I feel like I’m really improving with my cookie icing skills (thanks to all those you tube videos). My husband wasn’t a fan of the leaves, and he might have gotten himself into the dog house by saying so. Oh well, he just doesn’t understand my creativity….or something. 😉

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