Sunday, January 19, 2025

Cookie Decorating 101

 


Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to bake.  I'm pretty well known for my pumpkin bread, pound cake and Rolo cookies.  While these items taste good (or so I've been told 😉) they are not decorated or "fancy".  I have always been amazed by cookies decorated with royal icing.  I follow quite a few cookie decorators on TikTok and Instagram and have watched so many of their videos!  Of course, these are folks who have been doing this for a long time and they make it look so easy - newsflash - it isn't!

I put learning to decorate cookies on my retirement to do list and thought with Valentine's Day soon approaching, now was a perfect time to roll up my sleeves, bake some cookies, learn how to make royal icing and give this decorating thing a whirl.

I found a great online course from the Graceful Baker.  Her course comes with a very detailed workbook which has a ton of photos and an excellent, well filmed tutorial video.  The heart cookie course was designed for beginnners and she goes over all the details that make for a well decorated cookie, right down to the best way to hold the piping bag.  So many things that I had never considered before!


So, what did I learn from this experience?
  • I need a LOT more practice!
  • There are so many words used to describe the consistency of your icing - clumping, flow, flooding, peaking - it's like another language.
  • It was fun, but will definitely NEVER become a side hustle 😆
  • I now completely understand why people charge as much as they do for these kind of cookies.  These were very simple designs; the really complicated ones take much longer!
  • It's fun to try something new and stretch my abilities.
  • This is not a cheap hobby.  Geez - have you seen how much meringue powder costs?!?! 😮😮
Here are some close ups of my creations.



Toodles until next time...






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