I have no problem making good cookies- it’s the one thing my cooking ability lacking butt can do. The cookies themselves are delicious. So is the butter cream frosting. I even know how to mix colors and all kinds of wild stuff.
But something goes terribly, horribly, frighteningly wrong once we get to the decorating step.
We let the cookies cool, so as not to melt the frosting. We’ve tried spreading with knives, impromptu frosting bags made from zip lock bags, and fingers. All to no avail. We’ve tried every avenue of decoration possible- sprinkles to drawings, nothing looks good.
Seriously, our cookies look like they were made by mentally handicapped kindergartners. Do any of you have any tips, tricks, and good times for making good looking Christmas cookies? Don’t get me wrong, we know that it isn’t the look that counts, but we still want to just make one batch of non ugly cookies.
If we can’t be saved, do any of you have any other good Christmas cookie recipes that maybe don’t require an artistic touch?
If you’re not happy with the way your icing looks, you might want to use meringue powder.
I haven’t tried it myself, but I’m not picky about frosting. I have bought from this vendor before and been happy with them.
My roommate got offended by the OP because we can actually frost cookies a single color fairly well. She’s right. It’s anything beyond that that is. . . well, beyond us.
DB, please excuse my suggested correction to your grammar in the OP.
You have used “I” as the object of the verb “help”, instead of the proper “me”. You wouldn’t say, “Please help I make…”, so you can’t (legally) say what you said. To be correct, it should have said “Please help my roommate and me make…”.
This might keep a future résumé in the "active " pile.
You’re right. I usually double check these things, actually. In fact, I’m usually the one to point out such errors to folks. I didn’t preview my post and I was writing it while on the phone. Thanks, though.
Although I really appreciate your contribution to my question ;).
I was trying of a good way to answer this without sounding like that guy who sits around decorating cookies all day. Before I dig my hole I have to ask what types of color schemes are you and the roomie trying to attempt and on what shapes? For example, how does your attempt at a green tree with red and yellow bulbs come out? If your problem is with innovative color schemes, try to stick to no more than three traditional color combinations and see what happens. Now if you are trying to make pastel colored cookies…good luck. My vote is for trial and error because that’s what I use for architectural renderings when it is final project time. You figure out pretty quickly what works and what does not.
I find parchment paper triangles and No. 2 icing tips are the key.
You make up the color of icing you want and make it fairly thick and then separate it into two containers and add a few drops of liquid to one of the containers.
You use a half square of parchment, roll it into a cone, snip a little off the end and drop in the tip. Then poke the tip down to the bottom with a skewer or chopstick. Fill the bag with icing, and fold over the top. You can decorate with just the parchment, snipping off the tiniest amount and squeezing the icing through that. It works better than snipped plastic bags, but not as well as a metal tip.
Outline the areas in the cookie you want that color with the thicker icing, let it firm up, and then fill it in with the thinner icing. You can then use the thinner icing of another color to decorate and even get fancy dragging a toothpick through to make designs. Once one color is dry, do the next.
