christmas cookies: repost

***This is a re-post for Kelly's Korner, Show Us Your Life "Christmas Cookies."

Christmas cookie baking is in full swing! I did these bright cookies for a Christmas open house today. They wanted three dozen cookies so I decided I would make them bright pink, red and chartreuse. I think they turned out really cute!

Present boxes

Candy Canes

Christmas Trees (with a little black icing too)

I just thought this picture turned out really neat. And if you were wondering, you can make chartreuse icing by using a lot of lemon yellow gel with a little bit of leaf green gel. It was a lighter color but I wanted it to be a little deeper so I added more green until I was satisfied.

These cookies were done for another open house last weekend. They were just red and white but I think they turned out just precious. I used white non-pareils on the hats and mittens to give them a "fluffy" feel. Then it was time to jazz them up a bit...

How about polka dots?

...and stripeidy stripes!

These were bite sized cookies for patrons to sample.

I'm kind of embarassed by these snowmen, they could have been so much cuter. Sometimes it is hard to get the icing to be stiff enough as not to spread and run when doing detail work. I will need to practice to get these right.

All packaged up and ready to eat!

It takes a lot of work to do these so if the mood strikes you to whip some up, give yourself plenty of time. Just use whatever sugar cookie recipe you love and then whip up some royal icing. All of these recipes can be googled and you can twist them until they are to your liking. I like to make my cookies at least 1/4" thick so that they are nice and soft. They don't burn as easily either. I got some rolling pin spacers at Sur La Table and they make perfectly uniform and thick cookies. I highly recommend them! If you really want to practice with royal icing, I highly suggest you get a copy of the book Cookie Craft. It is very resourceful!