Cookie Tutorials

Gingerbread Cookie Wreath Tutorial

December 10, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

Not only can you legit eat the cookies off of this wreath, but you can hang it up as an actual wreath! I am so excited to share my gingerbread cookie wreath tutorial with you. Of course you know I absolutely love creating edible art, so I LOVED making this wreath. It’s currently hanging up in my house. Some cookies missing, of course, because little hands found out that she could eat this wreath. This wreath makes for a beautiful gift, a great addition to holiday decor and also looks beautiful as a centerpiece. It’s totally a project that can be done with the kiddos or as a family. So fun, and so delicious.

The gingerbread cookies

Gingerbread cookies are so full of flavor and warming spices, what is there not to love? These gingerbread cookies don’t spread in the oven, and no chilling is required before baking. Because the cookies have molasses in them, the dough can be a bit sticky. I like to roll the cookies out on a silicone baking mat. I cover the dough in parchment, then roll them out. Be sure to liberally flour your surface, and check occasionally to make sure they’re not sticking. I keep my bench scraper handy to lift up the dough and add more flour as needed.

Decorating the gingerbread cookies

This gingerbread cookie wreath is easily adaptable to other cookie shapes and icing colors. I have different Christmas cookie cutters, but I default to snowflakes all. the. time. They’re my favorite. This wreath would look adorable with ornament cookies. Star of David cookies would be amazing for a Hanukah wreath.

I used a variety of decorating methods for my gingerbread cookies. I used these cutters and this cutter for the snowflakes. I cut out some snowflakes that I left entirely undecorated to be used as a foundation layer on the wreath. Those cookies get coated with confectioners sugar.

For the cut out designs, I used a small tear drop shaped cutter from this cutter set and a #3 piping tip for the small holes. I used the smallest cutter in the snowflake cutter set to cut out the centers for the stained glass cookie technique. For some royal icing snowflake techniques, check out my sugar cookie post here.

For the stained glass cookie technique, you will need Jolly Ranchers, or another hard (not sugar free) candy. Place the desired colors into individual zip top bags. Cover the bags with a kitchen towel, and use a rolling pin to smash them into very small pieces. I suppose you could use a food processor, but where’s the fun in that? #2020

Fill the cut out areas with the Jolly Rancher pieces until it’s filled almost flush with the cookie.

Only a few supplies are needed for the gingerbread cookie wreath. Gingerbread cookies (recipe below), royal icing, a 12″ wood floral ring (I got mine from Michaels Craft Store, and it is the Ashland brand.), Press and Seal, and a festive ribbon for hanging.

How to make the gingerbread cookie wreath

To make the wreath form food safe, cut strips of Press and Seal and wrap tightly around the form, leaving one of the holes in the form accessible for the ribbon.

Cut a length of ribbon (as long as you would like for hanging it) and thread it through the hole of the frame.

Lay down the first (foundation) layer of cookies. I used solid cut out snowflake cookies with no additional decoration as my foundation cookies. “Glue” the cookies to the wreath form with royal icing. Be generous with the royal as you want these cookies to really be stuck on there.

Place the wreath onto a piece of parchment paper, and using a small sieve, dust the foundation cookies with confectioner’s sugar. It give the cookies a snowy appearance.

Glue the decorated cookies onto the wreath form, staggering them and alternating designs. Glue down the larger cookies with royal icing first, followed by smaller cookies to fill in any gaps. You want to conceal as much of the frame as you can.

If desired, tie a bow around the ribbon hanger.

Let the wreath dry overnight. The royal icing glue needs to dry completely or the cookies will slide off.

I hope you love this gingerbread wreath tutorial as much as I do. If you make it, I’d LOVE to know! Comment below or tag me on Instagram.

Enjoy!

Ash xx

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Gingerbread Cookie Cutouts

No spread gingerbread cut out cookies made with molasses and warm spices.

Course: Dessert

Ingredients

3 cups (360g) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2/3 cup (142g) light brown sugar
6 tablespoons (84g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (170g) molasses

Instructions

Whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth, fluffy and creamy, about 2 minutes.
Add the egg, followed by the vanilla extract, beating until just combined.
Add in the molasses, beating until just combined. Scrape down the bowl to ensure everything is incorporated.
With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture and beat until the dough starts to form large clumpsÂ and no large pockets of flour remain.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface sprinkled lightly with flour. Divide the dough in two and pat the dough into two disc shapes.
Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and chill the dough for 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 350F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Generously flour a work surface, as well as your hands and the rolling pin. The dough can become sticky as you work, so keep extra flour nearby to use as needed. You can roll out the dough between two pieces of wax paper or parchment paper to prevent any sticking issues if you prefer.
Roll out the disc until 1/4 inch thick. Cut the dough with cookie cutters. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used.
Place the cookies 2" apart on the baking sheets.
Bake the cookies for 10-12Â minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to turn brown. Rotate the cookie sheets halfway through baking. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the pan, then transfer to a rack to cool completely before decorating.

Black Cocoa Sugar Cookies + Decorated Pumpkins Tutorial

October 13, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

Black cocoa is a magical ingredient. It’s not an ingredient that is too common to home bakers, but is definitely one to keep in the pantry. Black cocoa powder creates really dark, and chocolatey baked goods. It’s perfect for making black buttercream, blackout cakes, and these black cocoa sugar cookies. These sugar cookies have an intense black color, delicious cocoa flavor, hold their shape when baking and are the perfect black canvas for Halloween cookies, like these decorated pumpkin and Jack O’Lantern cookies.

What is black cocoa?

There are two types of cocoa we use most often for baking – Dutch process and natural. Natural cocoa powder is the most common, most likely the cocoa powder grandma baked with. It’s the most natural of cocoa powders, hence its name. Natural cocoa powder is lighter in color and used in recipes with baking soda, where the acid in the cocoa is neutralized, enhancing the cocoa flavor.

Dutch processed cocoa powder is alkalized to reduce the acidity. It makes the cocoa powder darker, smoother and more mild in flavor. This type of cocoa powder does not need baking soda to neutralize, so it is commonly used in recipes with baking powder.

Black cocoa powder is similar to Dutch process, except that it is heavily alkalized. It’s the same powder used to make Oreos, so that should give you an idea of color and taste. It’s deep and bittersweet in flavor, though, depending on the recipe, black cocoa is often used in conjunction with another cocoa powder to give the baked good more of a balanced, multi-faceted chocolate flavor.

How do you make black cocoa sugar cookies?

This sugar cookie is similar to my go-to sugar cookie recipe, but with the addition of black cocoa. Note that not a lot of black cocoa is used in this recipe. It doesn’t take much to make these cookies black and the flavor strong enough. My favorite brand of black cocoa to use is by King Arthur Flour. This recipe comes together fast and easily, and can be made in advance and frozen. Bonus, especially if you’re planning on making a lot of cookies.

Room temperature butter is beaten with sugar until just combined. A room temperature egg and vanilla are mixed in, followed by black cocoa powder, salt and flour. Be sure to just beat your butter and sugar together until combined. No need for “light and fluffy” for these cookies. Incorporating air during the beating process contributes to spread as it causes the cookies to puff up and deflate and spread while baking. Chilling the dough before baking is also an important step to help keep the cookies from spreading.

Keep in mind the thinner you roll and cut out the cookies, the more crispy they will be. I like to roll my dough out to about 1/4″ thick to make sure they’re softer towards the center, and crispy on the outside.

About the icing

I decorated the cookies with my go-to royal icing. My royal icing is a bit unique because it contains corn syrup, which gives the icing a bit of shine when it dries, but also gives it a bit more elasticity when when piping. Additionally, it helps the royal icing to be a bit softer and not as rock hard when it’s dried.

I used Artisan Accents colors to color my icing. I used orange and a little bit of brown for the pumpkin color. The brown tames down the brightness of the orange a bit and gives it more of a true pumpkin color. I used the same brown gel color for the pumpkin stem along with a little bit of black to make a darker brown. I used leaf green and a smidge of black for the vines.

I used the same icing consistency (15-20 second icing) to outline and fill in my cookies. Color your icing the desired color. Then thin out stiff royal icing with a few drops of water at a time until a toothpick or spatula that is ran through the icing creates a line that fills up and flattens out within 15-20 seconds. For this consistency, the icing has to be thin enough to flow, while remaining thick enough that it doesn’t fall off the side of the cookie.

Tips on how to make Jack O’Lantern and Pumpkin decorated cookies:

Well, I’ll admit it, I made a mistake while making these cookies, and instead of remaking them, I decided I’m going to share with you my mistake so you can see what should be done differently. You can see in the photo (the third photo from the top) that alternating parts of the cookies are filled in with icing, which is the correct thing to BUT I outlined the cookies entirely first. This gave the outline time to dry, so that when the icing is filled in, it isn’t able to blend in and look cohesive. Instead you’re left with defined lines. These are easier to see on the Jack O’Lantern cookies. I iced over the outlines of the eyes, nose and mouth to hide the mess, but…well… it it what it is.

– Since these cookies are so dark, tracing a design onto the cookies to pipe over with an edible marker isn’t really an option, unless you have a white marker. Instead, use a scribe tool to etch your design into the cookies.

– Outline and fill alternate sections and allow the sections to set before outlining and filling the remaining two sections. Be sure to pipe the outline of the eyes, nose and mouth for the Jack O’Lantern’s as you go

– For the stems, I used a small star tip and brown royal icing to give them more a stem-like texture.

– I used #2 piping tips for outlining and filling in, as well as for the vines.

– Let the cookies dry until set before piping on the vines, then the stems.

I hope you enjoy these black cocoa sugar cookies! If you make any decorated cookies with this recipe, tag me on Instagram. I love seeing what you guys create with my recipes!

Ash xx

For more decorated cookie tutorials, check out these posts:

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Speckled Egg Cookies

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Black Cocoa Sugar Cookies

Black cocoa sugar cookies have an intense black color, delicious cocoa flavor, hold their shape when baking and are the perfect black canvas for Halloween cookies.

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Chilling Time1 hr

Total Time1 hr 30 mins

Servings: -14 large cookies

Ingredients

Black Cocoa Sugar Cookies

1 cup (230g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 ½ cups (312g) all purpose flour
1/2 cup (50g) black cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Royal Icing

4 cups (480g) confectioner's sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons meringue powder
4 tablespoons warm water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons light corn syrup

Instructions

Make the cookies:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa and salt until combined. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar until thoroughly combined.
Add the egg, followed by the vanilla extract beating until just combined.
Scrape down the bowl. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour/cocoa mixture and beat until just combined.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface sprinkled lightly with confectioner's sugar. Pat the dough into a disc shape.
Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 350F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Place the chilled dough on a work surface that has been sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. Sprinkle the top of the dough and the rolling pin lightly with confectioner's sugar to prevent any sticking.
Roll out the dough to 1/8-3/8" thick, depending on your preference, rotating the dough as you roll to prevent the dough from sticking.
Cut out desired shapes and place the cookies 2" apart on the cookie sheets.
Place the cookie sheets into the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to chill.
Bake the cookies for 17-20 minutes. Rotate the cookie sheets, halfway through baking. You're looking for the cookies to be soft when touched in the center, but fully cooked. Baking the cookies longer will result in a crispier cookie while baking them to just cooked will keep them soft.
Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets for 10 minutes, before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Make the royal icing:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the confectioner's sugar and meringue powder.
Add the warm water, corn syrup and vanilla extract.
Beat on low until everything is blended. Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and mix until the icing forms stiff, glossy peaks, about 5-7 minutes.
Icing can be thinned with water depending on the desired consistency. Gel or powder food color can be used to color the icing. Keep the icing covered with a damp towel to keep from drying out. Decorate your cookies as you wish.

Notes

Black cocoa sugar cookie dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to three days. Dough can be frozen for up to a month.

Tutorial: Speckled Egg Cookies

April 8, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

Today, I’m sharing this tutorial for an easy and fast way to decorate some Easter themed cookies. These speckled egg cookies are great to decorate with the kiddos and make super cute Easter basket gifts. The sugar cookie recipe I use for my speckled egg cookies is my go-to recipe. They are easy to roll out and they hold their shape when baked. They’re easily adaptable – you can add in your favorite spices, extracts, herbs, and more. You can find the recipe for my sugar cookies on my Snowflake Sugar Cookie post.

I used an oval cookie cutter to cut out my cookies, and I tapered one end, by hand, to have a slightly pointed egg shape. You can also use a larger circle cutter and shape it to look like an egg. Alternatively, you can use a sharp knife and cut out an egg shape, with or without a template. I don’t buy a lot of cookie cutters since I don’t use them often so I tend to make do with what I have.

Once you cut out your cookies, they need to be chilled. Chilling is important with sugar cookies as it helps them retain their shape. Once the cookies have been chilled throughly, they are then baked and cooled completely. While the cookies are cooling, I make the royal icing. The recipe for my royal icing can also be found on my Snowflake Sugar Cookie post.

I made three different colors of royal icing to replicate the colors of Cadbury mini eggs – robin’s egg blue, dusty pink and golden yellow. To mix color into royal icing, be sure to add very little at a time using toothpicks. Royal icing takes on color really well and can get too saturated really fast. Keep in mind that it will also darken a shade or two after it is colored. These are the gel colors I used to color my royal icing:

Robin’s egg blue: royal blue and ivory

Golden yellow: gold, and lemon yellow

Dusty pink – electric pink, and ivory

Ivory helps to tone down the hues so that the colors aren’t overly bright. Ivory is super necessary to have on hand for coloring royal icing, glaze, fondant, gum paste, etc.

One of the main issues that I hear from readers regarding royal icing, is that they are unsure of what the consistency needs to be for outlining and flooding, and if it is necessary to have multiple consistencies. I’m a no-fuss, one piping bag per color sort of cookie decorator, so I use a medium consistency for both outlining and flooding. This royal icing consistency post by Sweetopia is super helpful when determining if your icing is ready, so be sure to check it out. Royal Icing post coming from me in the near-ish future.

I used a PME tip #4 to outline my royal icing. I flooded the cookie with an Ateco #12 tip. After flooding the cookie, lightly shake it to distribute the icing and create a smooth and even surface. Outline, flood and let the cookies dry completely on the surface.

For the brown splatter effect, I mixed cocoa powder with a little bit of alcohol until a liquid paste (or slurry) forms. You can also use extracts instead of alcohol. Aim to use an extract that will compliment the flavor of your cookies and/or icing. I also made a metallic gold splatter using edible gold luster dust.

Now, this is the messy part. If you have an airbrush box, do these next couple steps in the box. Otherwise, lay out some paper towels to catch the impending cocoa mess. Using a paintbrush that is designated for food only, or a small pastry brush, dip the brush into the liquid paste mixture and wipe off any dripping excess. Use your finger to flick the chocolate mixture from the brush onto the cookies. I do recommend that you practice on a paper towel first to get the hang of how much of the chocolate mix to add you your brush as well as a good distance to hold your brush from the cookies to achieve the overall technique. Variations splatter size looks best.

I repeated the same process with the gold, but I used much less of the splatter effect. I just wanted a little gold to pop on my cookies.

Let the cookies dry completely (preferably overnight) before storing or serving. Enjoy!

For another delicious Easter dessert, check out this recipe:

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Tutorial: Snowflake Sugar Cookies

December 2, 2019 By Ashley 2 Comments

Every holiday season when I was growing up, my mom and I would bake batches and batches of cookies the weeks leading up to Christmas. It was something I always looked forward to. I always hovered around to eat what was being baked, and also waited patiently to help cut out and decorate the sugar cookies. To this day, sugar cookies still always end up on our Christmas cookie platter as they are a family favorite.

While I’ve decorated loads of sugar cookies – a byproduct of owning a baking business, snowflake sugar cookies are some of my favorite to decorate. My snowflake sugar cookies will easily become your go-to cut out sugar cookie recipe. These cookies come together easily, roll out like a dream, and keep their shape when baked. Roll them out thinner for a crispier cookie, or roll them out thicker for more of a softer cookie.

The cookie dough has pretty typical ingredients found in a sugar cookie dough recipe, with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, salt and flavoring. I use vanilla bean paste with a hint of almond to flavor my cookies, but you can add zests, different extracts, herbs and spices to these cookies if you wish. These cookies are very versatile and adaptable to different flavor combinations.

One of the biggest issues that bakers tend to have with sugar cookies is spreading while baking. Some ways to prevent this is to just beat your butter and sugar together until combined. No need for “light and fluffy” for these cookies. Incorporating air during the beating process contributes to spread as it causes the cookies to puff up and deflate and spread while baking. Chilling the dough before baking is also an important step to help keep the cookies from spreading.

I should mention that I am not a pro cookie decorator. I generally do basic cookie decorating, but I do decorate cookies from time to time throughout the year, so I do have a few helpful tips and tricks that can help making cookie decorating a bit easier. I used royal icing to decorate my cookies but I use corn syrup in my recipe to help keep the icing from getting rock hard when dry, and it also helps the icing have a bit more elasticity when piping. The corn syrup also leaves the icing with a bit more shine. Royal icing with corn syrup does take just a little bit longer to dry at room temperature, but drying time can be sped up by drying the cookies in front of a fan.

If I’m planning for more of an intricate design for my cookies, I’ll trace the cookie cutter onto some sketch paper, then I’ll sketch out the design on the sketch paper to give me a better idea of what I’m trying to achieve, and to see if the design works and would translate well to the cookies. I got my snowflake cookie cutter from Target years ago, but any snowflake cookie cutter will work. Mine is about 4″, so it makes a cookie on the larger side.

Once I decided my design on paper, I used an edible ink marker and sketched out the basic design on my baked and cooled cookies. Use a lighter color, such as yellow or light brown and just do a light sketch so that the ink can’t be seen under the royal icing. I used two different icing consistencies – medium thick for outlining and a flooding consistency for filling in. I used three different icing tips – PME 1, 2, and 4. PME 2 for outlining, PME 1 for small details and PME 4 for “flooding,”or filling the cookies in with icing.

I topped my still wet cookies with a bit of sanding sugar to finish the design. Let the royal icing set completely before storing. Decorated sugar cookies will stay fresh for a week stored in an airtight container. I do not recommend freezing iced cookies. Condensation can ruin your royal icing, causing it to bleed colors and melt. You can freeze the cookies without icing. You can also refrigerate and freeze the royal icing, storing it in an airtight container.

These snowflake sugar cookies are the perfect cut out cookie for all your cookie decorating projects. They’re delicious, versatile and perfect for decorating for any holiday. Enjoy!

Check out these posts for more cookie recipes:

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Brown Butter Maple Pecan Cookies

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Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Buttery, tender sugar cookies that will easily become your go-to cut out sugar cookie recipe. These cookies come together easily, roll out like a dream, and keep their shape when baked.

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Chill1 hr

Total Time40 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

Sugar Cookies:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Royal Icing:

4 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons meringue powder
4 tablespoons warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons light corn syrup

Instructions

Make the cookies:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar until thoroughly combined.
Add the egg, beating until just combined.
Scrape down the bowl. Add the vanilla bean paste and the almond extract and beat to combine.
With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour and the salt and beat until just combined.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface sprinkled lightly with confectioner's sugar. Pat the dough into a disc shape.
Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 350F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Place the dough on a work surface that has been sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. Sprinkle the top of the dough and the rolling pin lightly with confectioner's sugar to prevent from sticking.
Roll out the dough to 1/8-3/8" thick, depending on your preference, rotating the dough as you roll to prevent the dough from sticking.
Cut out desired shapes and place the cookies 2" apart on the cookie sheets.
Place the cookie sheets into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to chill.
Bake the cookies for 17-20 minutes, until starting to turn a light golden brown on the edges. Rotate the cookie sheets, halfway through baking.
Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets for 10 minutes, before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Make the royal icing:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the confectioner's sugar and meringue powder.
Add the warm water, corn syrup and vanilla extract.
Beat on low until everything is blended. Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and mix until the icing forms stiff, glossy peaks, about 5-7 minutes.
Icing can be thinned with water depending on the desired consistency. Gel or powder food color can be used to color the icing. Keep the icing covered with a damp towel to keep from drying out. Decorate your cookies as you wish.

Notes

Sugar cookie dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to three days. Dough can be frozen for up to a month.

This recipe makes 16-22 cookies depending on the size of the cutter used. I get 18 cookies with my 4" snowflake cookie cutter.