Corset Cookies

Decorative cookies kept simple and easy with just two colors. If you’ve been reading, then you know last week I had Callye of Sweet Sugar Belle Adventures guest post on the baking basics of decorating cookies with royal icing.

Well I figured no better time than the present to put all her tips and tricks to work for these fun cookies I made for a bachelor party.

Let me start by saying working with royal icing is all about finding the right consistency. Get it wrong and you will struggle like a car driving in first gear on the freeway. You can do it, but you might end up dropping the transmission. With cookies the struggle can result in hand cramps, stuttered looking lines and/or broken lines.

So next to practice, practice, practice, consistency of the royal icing is the most important thing.

Now here’s why Callye’s tutorial resonance with me so well. I’ve done the counting method that works great for many people, but not for me. I’m always worried I am counting too fast, too slow, what number was I at, you know, all the things an A.D.D person suffers from.

Callye includes the counting method, but along with that she compares the right consistency to everyday familiar things like toothpaste consistency for the outlining and shampoo consistency for the flooding.

Ever have that light bulb moment? Well those two small details brought it home for me because guess what? I’ve never been more at ease with making sugar cookies with royal icing.

Of course I should preface, I am not a sugar crafter in this area. In fact, I am pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that I reserve sugar cookies for the holidays and special occasion. They are labor intensive and require the kind of patience I do not generally have.

The other part of it is I’m perfectionist and my piping skills kinda suck-okay, more than kinda so I end up throwing away a lot of imperfectly piped cookies.  Although this time around, I not only kept them, I photographed them to show and tell where I went wrong to save you some time and frustration.  And selfishly, I’m trying to break my need for perfection.

See the not-so-perfect picture above. The outlining on first cookie looks almost like a glaze consistency. Here’s why-I left the icing in the pastry bag overnight and didn’t mix or fluff it in any way before using it the next day. I just grabbed, squeezed and piped-don’t do this. Store your icing properly. As you can see it makes for sloppy lines.  See the middle cookie – the icing was too stiff, not quite “toothpaste” consistency, so the outlining is uneven because it kept breaking. That’s what happens when you don’t follow directions. After learning from a few ugly cookies, I finally got the consistency right.

 For Callye’s royal icing recipe click here To get your piping skill primed for your holiday baking head over to The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. Read this post and this post before you get started and you will have a much easier time with decorating sugar cookies with royal icing.