I said I’d never do characters – but this is different, right?

It seems lately that I’ve been focusing on cookies – cut-out shaped cookies. I made a batch of ladybugs for my friend Cynthia’s daughter Eleanor’s first birthday party. They turned out ok but a few of them broke in the shipping from Columbus to Chicago, and a few of them had cracked frosting – which I can only assume means too much meringue powder?

Next up were the 4 dozen frog cookies I did for my neighbor to use as a birth announcement. (Sorry the picture came out so off-colored. I was in a hurry.) I bagged them individually, tied them with ribbon and attached a tag with the specifics of the birth – name, height, weight, date, etc. (Forgot to get a shot of the final packaging - but they looked really cute.) These turned out much better. The neighbor who ordered them was thrilled. Her husband will be passing them out when he returns to the office, and she will keep some at home for people who drop by to meet the new little guy. It’s a really cute idea, and I live in a neighborhood where procreation seems to be all they think about, so I may be making more cookies than cakes here for a little while. (I’m also making 5 dozen for a guy at work who’s wife is having twins any day now.)

So for those of you who like to do iced Christmas cookies, here are a few tips and learned a few lessons from the experience:

1. Don’t use too much meringue powder (powdered egg whites) in royal icing (the kind that dries hard) or it will crack after drying.


2. Don’t spread the frosting on too thickly or it will crack when it dries.


3. When shipping cookies to Chicago, always pack well in bubble wrap.


4. Red food coloring – even the gel kind – usually does not get you a true red color.


5. The more red food coloring you use, the worse the frosting tastes.


6. Cut-out iced cookies take a LONG TIME to make, so plan…..and price…. accordingly.


7. Working with colored royal icing can be messy. Wear rubber gloves.


8. You have to take precautions so that the icing does not dry before you want it to. Cover any open containers with a damp towel so that the frosting does not form a crust on top.


9. Let base coat on cookies dry for at least 6 hours (or overnight) before you stack them on top of eachother.

There you have it. Cookie decorating 101. (Oh, there’s sooooo much more I could say – but that would just be whining.)