Secrets of a Cookie Decorator – What the recipe books don’t tell you!
I’m here to share them with you, in no particular order, because that would take way more time for me to do than is worthwhile when I could be cookie decorating instead! Here are some secrets you may or may not know about cookie decorating, cookie decorators, and me… I’d love to hear your sweet little secrets too if you’d like to share them. Join me in the comment section below.
Quick side note – these cookie cookies above, are from a plate I bought at the Hallmark store. More on them in another post soon.
1. My cookies didn’t look as pretty when I began.
2. Practice does help. That being said, knowing the right decorating tips will get you on the road to creating pretty cookies, quickly. (Practice helps with photography too – still learning lots about that!).
3. Figuring out icing consistency made the biggest difference in improving my cookie decorating.
4. I have almost all cookie decorating books I can get my hands on. Who says you need to share the bookshelf with your husband?
5. The cookie books are beautiful, but I learned through trial and error. For some reason it just didn’t click when I read, “Your pastry-bag tip shouldn’t touch the cookie surface but rather should hover just above it…” (pg. 104 of Cookie Craft
– an awesome book btw. I’m just a hands-on learner! Translation – I’m a little slow). With practice, one day I just did it, and had an ‘ah-ha’ moment. I learn well with video or photos. There weren’t very many videos or step by step photos on decorating cookies when I first learned how to.
6. My hand did want to use a piping bag like a pen when I first began. After all, that’s what my hand knew. It can be re-trained. 😉
7. It does get easier easy.
8. I see the world in cookies. I don’t come up with pretty designs all on my own. I copy many designs with permission and/or attribution to the artists. The world is my inspiration…. Fabric, stickers, scrapbooking paper, ads, nature, holidays, paint palettes, books, art… it all has cookie potential!
9. The Kopykake projector. {I can’t really draw, unless doodles qualify as drawing}. I use a kopykake projector.
10. Alternatives to the kopykake projector. {If you can’t draw, and can’t buy a projector}.
11. Bigger cookies are easier to decorate in terms of detail.
12. I had no real interest in baking until 2003, at age, ahem, never mind, until 2003.
13. Don’t be afraid to “fail”. Sometimes I make cookie designs I don’t really like… and I don’t post them. Like the postcard cookie below – I wasn’t thrilled with my piping there, so I didn’t even end up taking photos of it, hence the screen shot of the video they briefly appear in. Experiment, have fun with it, and if you don’t end up liking a cookie, that’s okay!
13. I’ve stopped talking about cookie decorating with my off-line friends, family, and colleagues. I know the eyes-glazing-over-look now, and just save the cookie talk for you. (Thank you! Mwah!)
14. Truly, my hands are shaky. I don’t even drink coffee. (But generally eat large amounts of chocolate). Resting my arms/wrists on the table when I decorate helps.
15. I once had to ask a friend to change her request for 100 motorcycle cookies to another theme, when I realized I wouldn’t be able to make a nice looking cookie (didn’t have the projector then).
16. When someone gives me a gift, I’m looking at the design of the wrapping paper and wondering how I can make it into a cookie.
17. One of my first cookie decorating heros was Nancy’s Fancy Cookies & Cakes. Her cookies were real works of art. She no longer has a web page. If she ever comes back, and she doesn’t mind of course, I will direct you to her right away. With her permission it would not be considered stalking (I think…LOL).
18. I love love love decorating with all my heart. New cookie designs make me excited and happy to get out of bed in the morning. (Most days).
19. Decorating cookies can be a zen experience in that you focus on nothing else than what you’re doing, so stress and worries fall away, and pretty cookies are the result.
20. Giving away the cookies is so much fun. People (who don’t decorate cookies), think they’re amazing.
21. Cookie decorating makes you feel good.
22. Sometimes, cookie decorating can be frustrating… Spots form on cookies due to humidity, colours bleed, you feel time pressured…
23. But, that can be fixed…. Here’s what to do about humidity , bleeding, and a schedule to help you out.
24. I make mistakes… and I cover them up. One example – The icing ran over on one yellow owl below, so I covered the area later with leaves.
25. I am forever stocking up on icing sugar, butter, meringue powder, and cream of tartar.
26. Meringue powder is expensive – you can’t get around it; except…
27. Michael’s has an awesome 40% off one regular item coupon. That’s how I buy my meringue powder.
28. I don’t like cleaning piping tips. I need a ‘house elf’.
29. I don’t like preparing piping bags. Again, a ‘house elf’ would be helpful.
30. Sometimes, my husband cleans the piping tips. =) He does not want to be considered a ‘house elf’!
31. If I ever do watch TV, you might find me making piping bags at the same time.
32. I have 75 couplers, so that I can make lots of piping bags ready ahead of time.
33. I have a zillion piping tips between the sizes #00-#10 (Okay maybe not a zillion – 57).
34. Cookie cutter addiction is possible – I have over 400 cookie cutters and won’t take the time to count exactly how many. (Really though, over 400).
35. I know Martha Stewart has tons more (cookie cutters) – I would really like to see her collection.
36. I would also like to see how hers are organized. Mine are half decent, but I know hers would be amazing. She must have a ‘house elf’, or two, or three… Here are some of mine… (Cutters, not house elves):
37. Every where I go, if there are cookie cutters, and I don’t have the shape, I usually buy it.
38. Turns out, the main shapes I use are geometric cookie cutters.
39. Here are my bins of geometric cutters. (Ahem). I was blessed to inherit many classic cutters from my father, who retired as a chef and professor of George Brown College after having taught there for 28 years. (Funny enough, he isn’t a pastry chef).
40. Favorite decorating medium – royal icing. Fondant is fun too, but I prefer the taste of R.I. on cookies.
41. I don’t like squeeze bottles (but that’s just me). I find them harder to fill than piping bags.
42. I can’t make a parchment paper triangle piping bag. Have developed a certain fear of them. 😉
43. Elastic bands and hair ties work in pinch, to tie the ends of your piping bags off, but I prefer the Wilton icing bag ties
.
44. I listen to my iTunes while decorating.
45. Sometimes I watch listen to YouTube videos while I’m decorating.
46. My husband puts up with my cookie stuff in the kitchen quite often all the time. He is so supportive. (Mwah!).
47. I would like a bigger house so that I could have a ‘cookie decorating’ room.
48. My husband would like a bigger house so that I could have a ‘cookie decorating’ room.
49. Ribbons make a decorated cookie package look even prettier. My favorite ribbon is American Crafts. Or, ribbon at a store called Mokuba, in Toronto. Michael’s has pretty ribbon too.
50. I’m addicted to sugar tools. I have so many tools, I have lists of projects to do with them which would take years to make.
51. My husband came home one day, and I was hammering nails into our storage room wall, so that I could see my tools and get them easily when I need them. (My husband is an easy-going man). I am a very visual person. I need to see things to be inspired to create. Ahem. We were going to renovate that room some day anyways. 😉
52. I have a million ideas, and not enough time to make them all.
53. Besides online spots like Amazon, Ebay, and various other fabulous sites like CopperGifts and Fancy Flours, some my favorite places to shop in Toronto are the Bonnie Gordon College, Golda’s Kitchen and McCall’s Baker’s Warehouse. There are more super places – deserves it’s own blog post I think.
54. The only thing which has taken my attention away from decorating cookies is an addictive little site you may have heard of, called Pinterest.
55. I have dreamt of cookie designs.
56. I daydream about cookie designs.
57. I have found my bliss… Who knew it would take the form of royal icing! (Thank you John Snediker for the quote!)
58. I am a cookie nerd, and happy to be one.
59. My blog means the world to me. So do you. Thank you for visiting me here.
xo,
Marian
p.s. 
Hi Marian!
I laughed a lot with your post! YOU ARE FANTASTIC!!!
My story with decorating cookies is a bit sad… my son died some years ago and I was very very sad… so I had to do something not to get (more) crazy and diving in the Inernet I found you and your sweet world. You’ll never know how much you have helped me!!! I don’t make those awesome cookies you do, but I enjoy a lot making my own ones… You are my inspiration.
I’ll never get tired of saying you THANKS A LOT!!!
P.D.#1= All my friends also think I’m a cookie nerd
P.D.#2= Where could we buy a home elf???? Amazon???? If you find some of them, please let me know ;o)
Thanks for this! Still not convinced that for someone like me it would ever be easy but you are convincing me, slowly, to have a go!
this was a such a fun post, I really enjoyed getting to know you a little better.Thanks for sharing all the little things. You are sweet in and out.♥
I hate preparing piping bags…my cookies usually end up with max 3 colours because I get over preparing the bags. I’m always so envious of all piping bags when I see them in your posts, although now I’ll feel much better knowing you hate doing it too! Thanks for sharing and always being so inspirational!
This is awesome! You are so talented and i love your sense of humor too! It’s good to know there are other people out there that are just as crazy about cookies!!!
LOL. Thanks for sharing your B-Roll cookies (I have made many of those). Keep up the great work!
Thanks from Sevilla for this fantastic post. I love your blog.
Thanks.
Hahaha ohmy..
“48. My husband would like a bigger house so that I could have a ‘cookie decorating’ room.”
He is amazing, that’s how every husband should be like. Supportive!
That post was awesome, Marian. Made me laugh n smile all the time. I can relate to SO many things you have mentioned. Thank you!!
xoxo,
niner 🙂
Thanks for being an inspiration always in this mundane world. Not a single day goes by when I don’t visit your blog even if I don’t decorate cookies………Keep coming up with SUPER IDEAS alwayzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..
so fun! I wonder if your dad was one of my chefs at school, I was there in 96 and 97 I think. Sad how when you get older you forget yikes! I was just a goldas and was thinking of you yesterday when this little lady bought like 50 cutters and said she was not in business and was out of work. And she didn’t know what half the cutters were, she would ask,”so what is that one?” as they scanned it and put it in her bag. I want to be that lady, I bought vanilla bean paste, and so wanted more.
I can’t tell you how much I love this post. Every word of it rang true to me (as a cupcake baker)! I love seeing how you organize your tools. You should see mine. I have cookie cutters stashed in about 50 different assorted bags in assorted rooms. It’s only by memory that I know which ones are where. I love how you have hung some of your tools on your wall – great idea! Not sure my husband would be too thrilled about me doing that, but great idea nonetheless!
Marian- you are by far my favorite blog to follow!!! I love all your ideas and techniques… and your blog is always the first thing I check out in the morning! Love you!
I love love this post, thank you for sharing.
One of my secret would be when I began buying PME tips, I found that my icing comes out much easier plus I can leave them in water soaking and they do not rust (I also hate washing pipping bags and tips).
BTW, I think all cookiers should have a little house elf ;-))
What a great way to start the week! I hope you realize what a blessing you are to both cookie pros and amateurs (like me), alike. I have a true appreciation for the unique way you share your passion and knowledge. Now it’s time to get busy… I have 6 dozen wedding dresses to ice this morning.
Make it a marvelous March Monday bakers!
Thank you so much for posting this! As a novice cookie decorator, it’s great to read tips and tricks like this from a pro.
I really enjoy reading your blog and your tutorials! after reading this I don’t feel so bad about my ever growing cookie cutter collection 😉
We moved into our retirement home in August of 2009. I had discovered Bridget at Bake at 350 and by February of 2010 I had was decorating my first cookies. My husband is also extremely supportive of my *obsession* and knows that my favourite thing next to decorating cookies is shopping for supplies. I’d rather shop in a baking supply store than a clothing store and the new storage buffet purchased last year is proof of that LOL! The best thing to come from this hobby has been all the wonderful and talented people I have met on-line and I really can’t imagine my life without that daily interaction and inspiration. This *50 Secrets* post was a lot of fun. There is definitely a commonality among cookiers. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Thanks for all your inspiration !!! You are truly very generous in many ways !! Keep up the great cookie making we’ll be here to be in awe every time !!
I’m still a pretty new follower of your site, but this was really great to read. I feel like I got to know you a lot more. Your cookies are amazing and it’s nice to be reminded that everyone starts at the beginning (and that one day my cookies will look super fancy). Thanks for sharing. I want to go make cookies now. 🙂 …and as luck would have it, I have cookies on my blog to do list.
Great post. Thanks for sharing all your “secrets.”
You have summed it up perfectly!!!
It makes me SO HAPPY to know you (only becuase you’re like the piping queen) can’t make a parchment paper cone. I seriously thought I had to be the only one in the world who couldn’t get it!
Thanks for that!
Great tips, #20 rang so true to me, giving away cookies is the best. I love to package up a cookie for the neighbor, my favorite grocery clerk, the post office worker, the vet, etc. A simple unexpected cookie can really make someones day. I love your blog and think your tutorials are great! Thank you.
Hi Marion! I have. Even on this cookie journey for about a year now and so much of what you have said rang true! we have a very small kitchen that doesn’t have a lot of prep space so it didn’t take long for me to take over the addition space to create my own cookie room just off the kitchen. It has made ALL the difference! Now if we could just find that elf life would be just grand!
Thanks again for all that you do! You are such an inspiration!
Thanks so much for all your amazing tips and anecdotes. You are an inspiration-I hope you never get tired of hearing that.
I want an entire separate cookie out-building…a cookie monastery of sorts…filled with cookie monks who love nothing better than mixing royal icing colors and cleaning tips and utensils. Ah yes, the stuff dreams are made of!
Fantastic. My favorite is #20. If I am in self doubt, I give cookies away. I know there are waaaay more talented people than myself, but truthfully, there are zillions more who have no idea how to decorate a cookie at all. So I kind of like being in the upper percentile and strive for getting better!
Wow! Love your post! All of them! 🙂 luv from Spain
Hello my name is John, and “I am a Cookie Nerd!” (another great tee shirt idea, btw.)
Another amazing post. I laughed and my wife came to see what I was laughing about and she rolled her eyes… cookies again.. hehe she doesn’t get it but she is very tolerant and is awesome at cleaning piping tips and keeping me organized and from staring in an episode of Hoarders “the cookie man”.
I am proud to be a “Cookie Nerd” but at times it is a lonely existence, especially for a guy… when I am watching the fights with my buddies and I try to tell them about all the cool cookie cutters I just found, they roll their eyes… lol No I don’t tell them I am not that stupid… lol When I roam the isles of a cake/cookie decorating store or Michael’s people think I am lost, waiting for my wife or casing the place. LOL.
Love the videos, and the Redpath stuff… you need to do a podcast so I can listen to it while decorating and baking.
Sincerely, thanks for all the wonderful work you do on your site, I am a huge fan and admirer. Your tips have help more than I can say.
Big Burly Man Hug for ya! (FYI that is the best kind!)
John
OH! I forgot to mention… being quoted on your website is a huge honor! thanks!!
I so enjoy your list (and blog)! I started decorating cakes and cookies in 2008 when my husband had to be out of town for 6 months. I do a lot more with cookies, because I get so stressed out over cakes. If you mess up a cookie, you just eat it!!! It isn’t like you have ruined such an investment. I am a hobby baker, but my collection of tools is growing!
What a great post! I found my passion for cookie decorating in 2010 after purchasing a basket of brand-new cookie decorating supplies at a church rummage sale. The basket had piping bags, couplers, large cake decorating tips, nails and the $49 set of Wilton tips in the case, all for $20! I then found Bridget, Callye and you on the internet and the rest is history! I always knew my “niche” in life would involve food but never imagined it would be cookie decorating! I love it!
Thanks for a terrific post. What an inspiring way to start off a week. I can relate to so many things you said and had lots of laughs too! I think we’d all like to find that “house elf”. I love, love, love your site and am still drooling over your gingerbread houses from the holidays. Smile everytime I think of them! THANKS AGAIN!
Thank you so much for this Marian! I can especially relate to number 13…..I can’t help myself though 🙁
Thanks for the great post!! I really enjoyed reading it. Especially #48, “my husband would like a bigger house..” lol! I drive my husband crazy with all my cake/cookie decorating things.
Great post! #19 & #28,#46, #42, #58 My favorites! Thank you.
We all need a house elf 🙁
Hi @ Isabel: I’m so sorry to hear about your son! =( I sincerely hope you do feel better, and am glad that cookie decorating has helped! It has also gotten me through a lot of things… I mean, once you start decorating, you don’t think about anything else than the task at hand… I’m a true believer in keeping busy and doing my best at what I try, because otherwise there’s always something I could worry about if I wanted to. I haven’t gone through what you have though, and I am really, truly, thrilled that I could help you even a little bit! P.D. #1 -Let’s be cookie decorating nerds together, and P.D. #2 – I will pass on house elf news 😉 Amazon or otherwise!
@ Mardi@eatlivetravelwrite: Oh, I think you would do an amazing job, judging by your macaroons and your blog! I hope you try. =)
@ haniela: Thank you so much, sweet girl! You always know how to make me feel good. xo
@ Jenny: I know, what is it about those piping bags that are so tedious? I’m glad I’m not the only one!
@ Anne @ Flour Box Bakery: It *is* nice to know we have company in each other, isn’t it!
@ Dani: Ha! B-roll cookies – I like that!
@ entregalletas: Thank you so much! =) Thanks for visiting me here.
@ niner // sweet treats: Hee hee, you like that one?! It takes an easy-going person to be around all that cookie decorating stuff, all the time. I’m thankful! (and happy you’re here too! Hope you’re cake pops are going well!)
@ Lara: Aw, thanks! You don’t even cookie decorate … love it!
Hi @ Sue @ Cakeballs, cookies and more: That’s awesome that you went there! His name is Theo Lennartz – big, tall guy with a beard. What other teachers did you have? And oh my goodness, only vanilla bean paste at Golda’s! You have amazing willpower. (and I want to be that lady too!)
@ Sugar Daze/Cat: Made me smile! Mine used to be like that too… Various boxes, jars and containers in various spots at home… and like you, I had to remember where they were. And the old noggin wasn’t always remembering where they were… thus wasting much precious cookie-decorating time! It was a bit of an effort to get them all organized, but it’s soooo much easier. Now, when I run out of cupboard space, I’m going to have a problem. Lol.
Oh thank you @ Carolyn F! I love you for visiting!
@ Jeannette @ Sweet Dough: I agree, they should sell that service somewhere! Wish we lived in a Harry Potter type of world where house elves existed. 😉 And thanks for sharing your PME info. – I totally agree!
@ Laura Pokas: How are your cookies going? Good luck!
I love your site!! I started decorating cookies last March when I was laid off from my job. It has grown quickly, and now that I am working full-time again and baking/decorating for people I find that all I think about is cookies.
ps. nice to see site’s from fellow Canadians!
I stumbled over your site a week or so ago, and have spent ages looking at everything!! I now no longer mix up different consistencies of icing – that’s been a revolution!! I’ve only been doing cookies since January, and am feeling my way, but you’ve very inspirational. Thank-you for sharing your knowledge so freely 🙂
Kate (from England)
What a great post! I continue to be inspired by you and your blog. #34 made me feel not so bad about the contents of my suitcase when I moved overseas – I thought you’d appreciate it – http://rockstarwife.nfshost.com/2011/09/25/the-essential-packing-guide-for-overseas-moves/
I have all my cookie cutters listed on a spreadsheet – it helps me not to double up (too much)
I think I can identify with every single one of the wonderful things you mentioned! You are the best- just don’t stop what you do because it makes all of us smile and feel great! Many thanks!
Hi Marian,
I just love reading your posts. You are just too funny 🙂
I can certainly relate to your comment #13: “13. I’ve stopped talking about cookie decorating with my off-line friends, family, and colleagues. I know the eyes-glazing-over-look now, and just save the cookie talk for you. (Thank you! Mwah!)” Haha. so true…
Keep them coming
I found you through Pinterest – LOVE your site. I’m sooo afraid to decorate cookies – but you make it sound like fun. I might have to “try” again.
You have a new follower 🙂
We would be best friends.. if we knew each other. Or maybe worst enemies, because we are too alike(?)… I have a wall in my studio with nails holding cookie cutters, and glass “see through” jars with tools… and I have to see to be inspired, and I have more ideas than I can handle, and that actually leaves me frustrated sometimes because I wish I could do it all.
Except I like icing bottles.
So maybe we’re not *twins* per say… But I’ll forgive you for preferring pastry bags. *grin*
One question though – do you have a trick for not EATING cookies??? I do cakes too, and while I can easily walk past cake scraps, a broken cookie has no chance in my kitchen. *nom-nom-nom-nom…*
I love Sevilla! Spent one of the happiest years of my life ther in 1992 during th Expo! @ entregalletas:
Thanks @ Miriam @ Overtimecook!
@ daphne: Glad there’s more of us with (ahem), large cookie cutter collections. It’s nice to have company in my cookie cutter obsession. =)
Hi @ Paula: Oh, I’d love to see a photo of that storage unit! I’m sorry I haven’t been over to see it on your blog, if it’s there. That’s one thing I should include in the post, although it’s not a secret… I would like more time to visit *everyone’s* sites, and I’m sure I’d be even more inspired than I am now. I remember a beautiful royal icing piece you did last year… Oh and I’d love to spend more time on twitter too. 20 more years until I retire! LOL.
Sorry this is a run-on paragraph, but I have to say as well – it IS amazing meeting people on the net, either with the same or similar interests… it has made teh world a smaller place, and I love that! Hope to actually meet you one day, as we’re not too far from each other. xo
Aw, thanks @ Angela! Thanks for visiting me here!
@ Julie @White Lights on Wednesday: Nice to ‘meet’ you here too! If you’d like share your cookie photos on my facebook page when you’re done. Would love to see!
What a fun post. I laughed at #16 cause I totally do that with my kids wrapping, well actually I laughed at most of them as I found them all a bit true…..ahhh a cookie decorating room would be awesome.
I think he may have been there, there was this super tall chef, and I don’t think I had him, I had Makelwrath a tiny little lady she was fiesty, and oh there were so many I feel old I forget the names.
And yeah, hubby was proud of me for only buying the paste, but I got the huge $40 bottle, but he doesn’t know that.
Hi marian,
Last week, i visited your site for the first time, i must say it’s great.
I have just started my new hobby icing cookies, here in the netherlands we don’t have much books or sites on how to decorate them.
That’s why i’m so happy with you;-)).
You have a new dutch follower thanks.
Kind regards lindsey