Decorate Sugar Cookies Just Like the Pros
You can learn to beautifully decorate sugar cookies just like you see on social media and I can teach you how! Whether you like to learn from pictures and text or videos and words, I've got you covered! I have created photo Cookie Cards and a Video Tutorial so that you can choose your method of instruction.
*This tutorial is provided for those that have purchased my annually offered Royal Icing Christmas Cookie Decorating Kit. If you are creating the cookies and icing on your own, I use medium flood royal icing to both outline and flood the cookies.
Christmas Cookie Cutters
Cookie Cards: Sugar Cookie Decorating Guides
Use my Cookie Cards below as a guide to decorate your Christmas sugar cookies. Step by step photos plus written instructions give you all the details that you need to create beautifully decorated sugar cookies of your own.
Decorate a Christmas Tree Cookie with Royal Icing
- Pipe an outline around the entire cookie, except for the trunk at the bottom.
- Following the outline, flood the tree working towards the center of the cookie.
- Give the cookie a gentle shake by moving it back and forth to even out the royal icing. If needed, use a toothpick or scribe tool to move the icing around on the cookie to fill in any gaps or holes.
- Add a gold star sprinkle at the top.
- Let the royal icing dry for at least 20 minutes before you add top layers and adjacent sections. You can speed up the drying time of your royal icing by using a small table fan or dehydrator on the lowest setting.
- Pipe garland by draping icing horizontally, following the design of the cookie.
- Sprinkle with white nonpareils to make the garland look "fuzzy."
- Pipe dots for ornaments.
- Outline and fill in the trunk.
PRO TIP: Be sure to cut the opening of the icing bags small enough to be able to achieve the garland and ornament details. Consider outlining and filling the tree in alternating sections to created dimension.
Decorate a Gingerbread Man Cookie with Royal Icing
- Pipe an outline around the entire edge of the cookie.
- Following the outline, flood the gingerbread man, working towards the center of the cookie.
- Give the cookie a gentle shake by moving it back and forth to even out the royal icing. If needed, use a toothpick or scribe tool to move the icing around on the cookie to fill in any gaps or holes.
- Add black sugar pearls for the eyes and red sugar pearls for rosy cheeks.
- Let the royal icing dry for at least 20 minutes before you add top layers and adjacent sections. You can speed up the drying time of your royal icing by using a small table fan or dehydrator on the lowest setting.
- Pipe wavy icing lines on the forehead, hands and feet.
- Pipe three dots for buttons down the center of the body.
- Pipe a smile.
PRO TIP: Add a bow tie or hair bow to dress up the cookie. For an alternate design, turn this cookie upside down to decorate as a reindeer face. The arms become the ears and the legs and feet become the antlers.
Decorate a Present Cookie with Royal Icing
using the Marbling Technique
- Pipe an outline around the edge of the cookie.
- Flood the cookie in stripes using alternating colors in whichever combination you desire. Start at the top and work your way down to the bottom creating stripes of color with similar widths.
- Using a toothpick or scribe tool , scrape a line through the icing in the center of the cookie from top to bottom. Scrape two more lines through the icing from top to bottom, each on either side of the center line, essentially dividing the cookie into four sections.
- Scrape four more lines through the icing in between the three lines that you created in step 3, but this time scrape from bottom to top.
- Give the cookie a gentle shake by moving it back and forth to even out the royal icing. If needed, use a toothpick or scribe tool to move the icing around on the cookie to fill in any gaps or holes.
- Outline and fill in the two outer ribbon loop sections on the top of the cookie.
- Let the base layer of royal icing dry for at least 20 minutes before you add top layers and adjacent sections. You can speed up the drying time of your royal icing by using a small table fan or dehydrator on the lowest setting.
- Pipe a vertical ribbon down the center of the present.
- Outline and fill in the center ribbon loop section on the top of the cookie. Let dry for 20 min.
- Pipe tails for the bow on either side of the vertical ribbon in the center of the present.
- Pipe a curved line on each of the three ribbon loops on the top of the cookie.
- Pipe a knot in the top center where the three bow loops and vertical ribbon come together.
PRO TIP: To achieve a seamlessly smooth marbling design, flood the cookie quickly and marble with a toothpick or scribe tool immediately before the royal icing begins to dry.
Step by Step Sugar Cookie Decorating VIDEO Tutorial
Visual Learner? Let's Decorate Cookies Together!
Follow along to my step by step video tutorial. Learn how to decorate Christmas Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing including a Christmas Tree, Gingerbread Man and Present. I break down the decorating process into easy to follow steps and give you helpful tips along the way.
Helpful Cookie Decorating Tools:
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Want to Learn More?!
Looking for more inspiration? Check out my Buttercream Icing Christmas Sugar Cookie Decorating Tutorial. Learn to decorate the same Christmas cookies with buttercream icing in different designs that can also be translated to royal icing.
