I know it’s a little late in the season for autumn leaf cookies. The snow has been flying here in Minnesota and the fall leaves are long gone. However, I recently treated myself to some new cookie cutters and Thanksgiving is my last chance to use them before it’s all Santa and snowflakes. I recently saw this swirly-looking cookie frosting and thought I’d try it myself. It turned out to be pretty easy to do, and so I thought I would share it with you.
The Cookies. I used The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies from Allrecipes, which is an excellent recipe. I rolled the dough about 1/4” thick and cut out various leaf shapes and pumpkins. I ordered my cookie cutters from The Cookie Cutter Shop. They have a very nice selection. Most of my cookie cutters are in the 3” to 4” range.
The Icing. I used Sugar Cookie Icing from Allrecipes. I had used this icing before on my Ladybug Cookies with great success, so I knew it would work beautifully for this project. It is easy to work with and with the corn syrup in it, it develops a lovely smooth surface. I mixed up the icing and divided it up to make different colors. Here was my snag. The food colorings that I have made super-bright colors, not the more muted dark colors of autumn. I’m sure there are better food colorings out there than what I have (I swear I’ve had this same box of food colors for at least 10 years), but I didn’t want to go out and find them. I brained-stormed and decided to try adding a little cocoa powder to each color. It worked! The cocoa powder muddled the colors, making them just right for autumn.
The Cookies. I used The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies from Allrecipes, which is an excellent recipe. I rolled the dough about 1/4” thick and cut out various leaf shapes and pumpkins. I ordered my cookie cutters from The Cookie Cutter Shop. They have a very nice selection. Most of my cookie cutters are in the 3” to 4” range.
The Icing. I used Sugar Cookie Icing from Allrecipes. I had used this icing before on my Ladybug Cookies with great success, so I knew it would work beautifully for this project. It is easy to work with and with the corn syrup in it, it develops a lovely smooth surface. I mixed up the icing and divided it up to make different colors. Here was my snag. The food colorings that I have made super-bright colors, not the more muted dark colors of autumn. I’m sure there are better food colorings out there than what I have (I swear I’ve had this same box of food colors for at least 10 years), but I didn’t want to go out and find them. I brained-stormed and decided to try adding a little cocoa powder to each color. It worked! The cocoa powder muddled the colors, making them just right for autumn.
Ack! Day-glow colors!
Ahhh….a little cocoa powder results in subdued autumn colors……
The Technique. First, frost your cookie with a base color. Then immediately dab dots of another color on with a toothpick.
Once you have your two colors applied, start swirling.
Just drag a toothpick lightly across the dots to make any pattern your desire.
You can make veins of leaves.
You can even make hearts by simply dragging the toothpick through the dot once.
Beautiful!
This not only works with fall leaves, but you can also used it to decorate Holiday cookies, Valentine’s Day cookies, Easter cookies, you name it!
The only problem is, they are almost to pretty to eat…..
Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving!
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