These cookies were a lot of fun to make! It might have to do with the sparkles…
Here’s a photo of some of them in artificial light. The first pic was actually in sunlight – and although it looks darker, the sparkles show up more. It was hard to capture the shimmer in a photo!
Resisting the urge to cover them in disco dust was futile; originally I was only going to cover parts of them in the edible glitter… You can see how that turned out.
Coffee or tea?
The cookie designs were made using scrapbooking paper and my kopykake projector.
I love the added glimmer disco dust gives to the royal icing. If you’d like to try it out you can find it here
Gingerbread of course! Another batch of tea time.
This is by no means a tutorial… but I’ll share with you a few tools and a recipe I used to make these cookies. Here are the tools:
Tools Used:
1. Cloth – a damp one nearby to keep the tips clean
2. Wilton Disposable Decorating Bags
4. Wilton Decorating Tip Cover , Set of 4
5. Decorating Tip #2
6. Couplers
7. Paste Colour – Brown
8. Americolor Soft Gel Paste – I like Americolor best because I find the darker colors don’t bleed as much when I use it to color royal icing. I still do like to mix in Wilton colors if I need to achieve a certain hue.
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I used Peggy Porschen’s
Antonia74′s Royal Icing Recipe
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Ingredients:
6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar
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Directions:
In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds.
Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.
Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.
Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.
Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.
Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.
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Have fun creating!
xo,
Marian
Your cookies are BEAUTIFUL!!! Very original.
They look lovely – so neat, tidy and glittery
OMG Marian…these are to die for!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the tips and links for product!
Gracious!!! These are the cutest cookies I have ever laid my eyes on!!!
You turn out the most beautiful, eye-catching cookies I have ever seen. WOW, just WOW
Those sparkly cookies just made my day! So cute!
I think these are by far my favorite cookies you’ve made. They are like nothing else I’ve seen out there. Very, very adorable!
omgosh how cute – i think i’m in love with that sparkly disco dust!
Gorgeous! Love the sparkles and the tea cup with the steam coming out of it is adorable !!
They’re so beautiful – so sad I missed their making! THe more glitter the better I think ^_^
Wow how beautiful your work is…. you are soooo talented. love all your decorted cookies, thies are very special.
ML
Beautiful work! Loveyour cookies!
So pretty! 
Great blog! :love:
Those are incredibly cute! I love the way disco dust looks.
These cookies are simply gorgeous SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! Excellent work!
Rossana
Wow!!! Marian, just loooove these cookies! The disco dust is amazing and really makes them dazzle! Of course it’s your talent that is dazzling in the first place!
wow, these cookies are GORGEOUS!! you have so much talent!!
Oh my goodness Marian! I am simply dazzled by these cookies – I absolutely LOVE them. I wish you’d post the rest of this series to Flickr and ST – I couldn’t quite make them out from the one image you had on your photostream.
Those are simply beautiful! You are so talented!
Quick question, is there a template to create these designs? I’m just wondering how I can do the designs you have in the center of each cookie. There are so perfect!
Thanks and keep up the good work =)
Thanks Rossana! There isn’t a template, but eventually I will do a tutorial (have to draw them on paper and get a scanner!).
Woooow…. these are beyond beautiful!
Hi! Those cookies are gorgeous! How is this frosting stored if you don’t use it all? In the fridge?
Lauren, I keep royal icing at room temperature for up to a week if it’s made with meringue powder.
If it’s made with egg whites (for gingerbread houses), I keep it in the fridge.
Thanks! Yes, I used Meringue powder. I read online for 2 weeks. I guess I can test the icing before I use it to make sure it’s still ok.
Simply AMAZING! They are just so beautiful and unique each cookie is just better than the next!
I love the look of the disco dust so much that I went and ordered it. I was just curious if you know if it is actually ok to eat cuz it says non-toxic, for use for crafts on it. Thanks for all your great ideas and tips!
Thank you for the lovely comments!!
faigy, I just learned some new info. about disco dust… please read the p.s. note here.
Your cookies look so beautiful and inspiring!I will have to try my hand at these very soon!!! (after a lot of practice, they may look a bit like yours! haha).
Thanks so much and good luck Mary!
Can those decorated cookies be eaten or just for display? Thanks.
Ram; they are edible. The disco dust is non-toxic and not necessarily classified as edible by the FDA though. I don’t sell these and let my recipients know about that factor. Still trying to find out more info. about it as well.
These are so adorable!! Question…how are you able to do all those small details on the cookies with a #2 tip? For example the details on the outside of pockets on the apron? How is that done?
This is just amazing!
Thanks Mari!
I used a #1 decorating tip and sometimes a #00 tip, which you can find on Amazon or probably at your favorite cake decorating store/site.
I use royal icing…what consistency would you recommend? Because everytime I use anything smaller than a #2 tip, the icing is just very hard to come out and constantly have to keep unclogging it.
Mari; for consistency I always use the 10 second rule, which I wrote about here:
http://www.sweetopia.net/2009/06/cookie-decorating-tutorial-general-tips-butterfly-cookies/
For tiny tips, I keep a toothpick or safety pin beside me to poke the hole in the piping tip to unclog it. (As you’ve probably been doing). Running the tip under warm or hot water works as well.
If that still doesn’t work very well, before you put the icing in your piping bag, squeeze it through a clean nylon. The tiny holes act as a sieve.
Hope that helps!
Were these cutsie graphics from stickers too???
These were from scrapbooking paper!
Do u always sift your powd. sugar? Is it a necessary step? It’s such a pain I figured I only want to be doing it if necessary!!! Thanks
It’s safer to do so… If I’m in a hurry I won’t buuut, even if I’m in a hurry and know that I’ll be using a small piping tip such as #1, I’ll sift anyways.
Annoying I know!
So pretty! I always use white icing to outline, I think you’ve convinced me to try black. That looks so pretty! Thank you for the inspiration!
Thanks for commenting Tami!
Do these cookies taste good? I’ve noticed that the black and red gel food colors make the icings/frostings taste funny. Have you had that trouble with yours or do I need to buy a different brand?
I simply LOVE the designs on these cookies and cannot imagine that I would EVER be able to make them myself. Simply amazing!! I tried using Wilton’s Cookie Flow icing additive to make smoothly iced cookies and it was a dismal failure. It never actually “flowed” more like glopped on. I guess I need more practice with the liquid ratio. I’ll read about your 10 second rule for the next time…if I can get myself to even commit to a next time.
Thank you for your helpful site!
Angie, The food coloring can make the icing taste funny if you use lots of red or black but, Americolor is better, but if you do buy Wilton, you can buy the “no taste red” at least.
Hope you try decorating again, it can be very fun and satisfying!
Hi Marian,
Any ideas as to why my royal icing is coming out grainy/sandy/brittle? The first few times I’ve made it the icing has hardened to a nice solid finish. But now, after two days of drying, the surface of the icing (on the cookies) just kinda crumbles off. I can actually just rub it off with my finger. I follow the directions to a T! Thanks again for your help.
-Christine
Hi Christine,
I’m sorry you experienced that! I’m not actually sure what the problem is as it hasn’t happened to me. Maybe some readers will have some input?
I have much success decorating many cookies with Royal Icing. One problem I continue to have is when adding details to the cookies after flooding dries.
My tip continues to clog and I am forever spending time cleaning it. It’s been a frustrating evening adding details to my baby shower cookies and I still have more to complete.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
@ Dianne:
I’ve got a post on tips clogging here if you’d like to check it out:
http://sweetopia.net/2010/03/how-to-prevent-your-tips-from-clogging-and-what-to-do-if-it-happens-top-10-tips/
Hope that helps!
Hi, i live in colombia and i don´t know what is meringue powder Hi, i live in colombia and i don´t know what is meringue powder, could i replace the meringue power for other thing??
Thank´s
Diana, you’d have to use a recipe made with egg whites instead of meringue powder. Sorry I don’t have one on my site right now, but google will help!
Hi Marian,
I just want to ask, can I divide this recipe by half? I usually bake 12-20 cookies once and this recipe is more than I need. Thank you!