So this is my VERY first attempt at this type of decorating.
I am a cake decorator normally.
But wanted to switch things up a bit. Not terribly worried about recipes, the icing recipe was okay in my opinion. The picture above is before they fully set, but the only thing that changed when they fully set was they were no longer shiny.
Ive read that can be fixed with a dehydrator, which I dont have.
Asking mainly for technical advice. I plan on doing more in the future. Was a very fun experience for me. First set of many…Hopefully. i know that with the writing ones, I needed to wait longer, and thats why the words sunk in and spread a bit.
by Boring-Fan-4940
7 Comments
Blowing a fan over them while they dry can keep them shinier too!
My technical advice would be to make your icing slightly thicker and to make an outline before flooding in with icing. Should take about 10-15 seconds for the icing to settle out smooth in a bowl after you stab it or stir some. This plus outlining (and then letting it solidify just slightly, like 1 min) will help stop the icing from overflowing down the cookie.
Some cookiers add light corn syrup to the base icing recipe. That helps them keep some sheen
Also, for writing, it may be clearer if you let the flooded layer dry for like half an hour then pipe on the words. The techniques you did this time is called wet on wet and it causes the words to kind of settle into the flood layer and spread a bit.
I use slightly thicker icing when I do wet on wet, not for the base, but for the rest. I feel like it spreads a little less that way.
Start with smaller holes in your piping bags. You can always cut it bigger but you can’t make it smaller as easy.
The tip of whatever you are piping with looks like it should be smaller for some of the details. I agree with others as well that you consistency may be a bit too thin. Especially for writing of any kind.
If you sure planning to get really serious about cookies and plan to do writing or details, I highly recommend a dehydrator!
I’m too much of an amateur cookier to provide advice, however I feel this is also part of the process to 1)help me with my own work, and 2) give someone else a boost in their work.
I absolutely love the colors, it does put me in a “hello fall mood” and those acorns are adorable!
On the icing- I’d use a thicker icing (I’ve been using two one “toothpaste” consistency for the outline and my flood is likely a tiny thicker than your white. I’d say a “10-12 second” consistency but even to me it just still sounds weird.
For the swirls and line art, i love how it sinks in leaving one level of icing. If you want it to puff up to add dimension, allow the solid layer to dry before adding
Your handwriting is really good! But same as above, allow your base to dry and I’d use more of a toothpaste consistency for lettering. Or, once that dries. Add thin white lettering over top?
Overall I love these, and I say you’re in the right track. If you enjoy making them, keep practicing. I make a batch almost every weekend now just to practice and give them to my family/friends and to get more feedback.
for your first attempt (i know nothing about baking cookies like this) but it looks amazing!