Decorating Christmas Cookies

Half the fun in baking cookies comes in decorating them and wrapping them up to give away as presents. You don't have to wince at the thought of coming up with professional-looking cookies---it's part of the charm of homemade cookies. But it isn't hard at all to dress up elegant cookies. Surprise your family and friends this season by giving them some whimsical cookies, and telling them that contrary to what they might think, these goodies aren't store-bought. They're made with a lot of love, sweat, warmth, and of course, sugar.

Dressing Up Your Cookies

For frosting dark cookies, like gingerbread cookies or brown sugar shortbread, bright and vibrant cookies work best. Royal icing (recipes for this can easily be found online), the ornamental frosting that hardens when piped, works best. This icing recipe uses raw egg whites, but due to health issues, you can substitute meringue powder instead. Mix up a huge batch of icing and separate them into different bowls to make different colored frostings. Use a pastry bag (you can improvise a pastry bag by cutting off a corner of a plastic bag) fitted with a plain tip for each different color, and pipe away your imagination! Work quickly though, because royal icing easily hardens.

For frosting light cookies, use confectioner's icing. This is a shiny icing that dries beautifully, and is made by mixing 3 cups of powdered sugar with 4-6 tablespoons of light corn syrup and 4-6 tablespoons of milk. Add the liquid a little at a time, just to be sure. The amounts don't have to be precise, and you can simply eyeball the amount of liquid to put in until you achieve the consistency that you want. If the frosting is too thick, or is starting to harden, add small amounts of liquid at a time, and if the frosting is too thin, add some more sugar to it. Use a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip for piping your frosting. As a variation, you can also add a touch of flavoring to your frosting, like a few drops of coffee extract or Irish creme, if you wish. Just always keep in mind to add a little at a time and taste the frosting along the way to find if you've added enough flavor. To make thick lines or abstract designs, you can use a teaspoon to spoon thin strands of frosting over your cookies. For more elaborate designs, use a spatula to coat your cookie with one color frosting, allow it to dry, and draw designs over it with different colored frostings.

A word of advice when adding color into your frosting: it's easier to add more color than take them out. Use a toothpick to dip into your bottle of food color and incorporate this tiny dab of color into your frosting. Be patient---it might take several additions before you achieve the shade that you want, but a more careful method avoids wastage and accidents.

There are other options for decorating your cookies. You can sprinkle crystal sugar on top of your batter before baking. Colored sugar is also available in most specialty shops or in the baking aisle of your supermarket, and you can coat parts of your cookie with frosting, or draw figures on your cookie with frosting, before dipping them into your colored sugar. Edible gold beads are also available, and while they may be pricier, they make for some of the most elegant decorations. Pipe rounds of dots along the edge of your cookie, or pipe a border around your cookie using icing and dip it, frosting side down, into a bowl of the gold beads. You can also melt chocolate and either dip one side of your cookie into the chocolate and lay them out on cookie racks to dry, or use a teaspoon to drizzle some of the melted chocolate on top of your cookie.

Wrapping Up Your Cookies

For huge cutout cookies, you can simply put them in 3x5 clear plastic bags and seal them with gold wire, which you can buy by the yard at specialty shops or your local art supplies or packaging store. You can also opt for metal cookie tins, which are very elegant but can cost a lot more. Check out your local packaging store or baking supplies shop for the available boxes or packaging. Clear acetate cylinders or boxes are very stylish, and they don't cost as much as cake tins. You can line them with gold foil if you've got extra budget. Buy two rolls of ribbon in whatever color combination and design you want, and use these to seal your cookie packages. Scout your local flea market or thrift shop for some trinkets you can incorporate into your packaging design. The idea is to be as creative and as resourceful as you can. Remember, your cookies can't taste half as good without the right packaging, and it certainly doesn't hurt to achieve as much visual appeal as you can.

The most important thing about making cookies though, is having as much fun out of it as you can. This opportunity only comes once a year though, and it'll certainly help you feel the holiday spirit a whole lot more. Personalized presents add dimension to your loved ones' holidays, and cookies can be a unique, fulfilling and whimsical way to fill your days away from work.