How to Decorate Cookies

Decorating cookies is a rewarding activity that you can enjoy alone or with friends and family. The smell of fresh-baked goodness, the colorful icings, the petite bowls of assorted toppings, and of course, the impromptu nips along the way all make for a warm and relaxing time well spent. Whether you’re preparing a tray of homemade delight to bring to your holiday gathering, a family birthday celebration or a loved one’s bar mitzvah, or you simply feel the urge to bake up something beautiful, you can use these tips and our minimally processed, unrefined cane sugars to make fresh-baked delights you can feel good about with every bite. Let the decorating begin!
 

Gather Your Supplies

Having the right equipment on hand will ensure that the unique designs you can create for your cookies will turn out as amazing as you imagined. Here are some items we suggest gathering before getting started:

1. Cookie cutters

2. Stainless steel piping tips

3. Reusable Piping Bags

4. Couplers

5. Plant-Based Vegan Food Coloring

6. Toothpicks

7. Festive toppings

All of these cookie-decorating supplies can be easily found at your local baking supply shop or ordered online. Once secured, it’s time to begin baking your first batch.

For beginners, we suggest using our Vegan Sugar Cookies as they provide a solid foundation for your designs. Once you've mixed, cooled and rolled out your dough to no less than ¼ of an inch, use your cutters to render your dough into the desired shapes. You can select cutters that have specific designs or use basic shapes to form custom creations. Whatever you decide, after cutting, place your cookies on a baking sheet and cook them according to the recipe’s instructions. Once fully baked, the cookies can be frosted immediately to provide a glaze or completely cooled to pipe your specific designs.

Whip Up Your Royal Icing

Royal icing is particularly good for creating more detailed designs. It’s easy to make and can be colored in an array of shades. It also dries quicker than other icings, which is handy when attempting more intricate work. For a royal icing recipe that is delicious and full of goodness, we recommend trying our Vegan Royal Icing. Once you’ve followed the recipe and have your icing prepared, divide it into separate bowls and add plant-based vegan food coloring to create the colors you desire. You can create a variety of shades by adjusting the amount of color you add. With your piping tips already attached, fill your piping bags with the finished icing, and let’s get down to business.

Decorating Techniques

Decorating cookies is an art, and like any art form, practice makes perfect. You can find a number of unique and trendy cookie decorating designs for inspiration on our website. 

A tip for beginners, once your cookie’s design is decided, begin by outlining your desired shape. Next, fill in the outline with more icing using a zig-zag motion. If you’re using more than one color icing on the same cookie, let the first color dry before adding the next to avoid blending colors unintentionally. Once filled in, help the icing settle by giving your cookies a little side-to-side shake. This will help flatten the icing into the desired neat and polished form. You can then add more flair by repeating this process in layers or by adding a sprinkle of our Florida Crystals® Regenerative Organic Raw Cane Sugar, sliced almonds, coconut flakes or maybe cacao nibs. Toothpicks come in handy to pop any air bubbles that may appear. Now that’s one chic looking cookie!