DECORATED SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Painted Royal Icing Cookies: Bake a couple of extra practice cookies from the scraps of dough to test paint colors and techniques on.
• Use a pastry bag with a small round tip or a zip top bag with a corner snipped off to outline and then cover the cookie with royal icing. Allow royal icing covered cookies to dry 24 hours before painting.
• For painting the background of the cookies, dilute food colors with water until desired color is achieved. (Test color on one of your practice cookies.)
• To add outlines and details, use concentrated food color or edible food color pens.
• While the "paint" is still wet, sprinkle with edible glitter to add an extra sparkle to your cookies.
• Candy Melts Molded Cookies: You can use either heat resistant or non-heat resistant molds for these cookies. Heat resistant molds can filled with the cookie dough and baked in the oven. Non-heat resistant molds can be used to mold the cookie dough only. If you are using non-heat resistant molds, make sure you are using cookie dough that won't spread too much in the oven.
• Paint melted candy melts into the details of the mold. Allow the detailed areas to harden. Fill in the mold with a background color, making sure that you can't see through the mold when you hold it up to a light. Be careful not to overfill the mold with the candy melts. If you fill the mold completely, the candy top will not fit snugly against the cookie base. Place the filled molds in the freezer until the candy is cold. Remove the molds from the freezer and carefully release the candy. Secure the top to the cookie with a dab of melted candy melts.
• Luster dust brushed on the candy tops adds a beautiful sheen to your cookies.
• Tinted Royal Icing Cookies: Outline the area of the cookie to be covered using a pastry bag with a small round tip or a zip top bag with the corner snipped off and quickly fill-in the center of the cookie with royal icing.
• When icing sets, outline and fill-in adjoining areas with additional colors of royal icing.
• Details can be piped on in complementary or contrasting colors of royal icing after the base color has hardened.
• Fondant Molded Cookies: You can use either heat resistant or non-heat resistant molds for these cookies. Heat resistant molds can filled with the cookie dough and baked in the oven. Non-heat resistant molds can be used to mold the cookie dough only. If you are using non-heat resistant molds, make sure you are using cookie dough that won't spread too much in the oven.
• Using the same molds you used to bake the cookies to decorate these cookies. Lightly dust the mold with powdered sugar and press fondant into the molds. Using a small offset spatula carefully remove the fondant. Secure the fondant to the cookie using a small bit of buttercream icing.
• You can create detail in the fondant covered cookies by using different colors. Press small bits of fondant into the details of the mold you want to highlight and then fill in with a background color.
• Luster dust applied to the fondant adds an extra special sparkle to your cookies.
• The fondant can be painted with food coloring or with edible food color pens to add extra details to the cookies.