St. Patrick's Day Magic

I love working with glacé icing! It's so much fun to add different colors to the cookies, and then swirl the icing around and watch pretty designs appear.



For the swirls, start by flooding your cookie with one solid base color. While the icing is still wet, pipe short lines in a swirl pattern, starting from the outside of the cookie and working in. Try alternating colors (I used dark and light green) for a fun effect, like this:



Now, drag a toothpick through the center of the lines, starting from the outside of the swirl and working to the center. Just follow the shaky black arrow I made in Microsoft Paint.



Now watch this beauty magically appear!



For the shamrocks, you will use a similar technique, just in a different pattern. Flood a cookie with white icing. While it is still wet, pipe 4 green lines in a square pattern. Drag a toothpick through each line, from the outside of the square to the center. Here is a diagram that might help you better visualize the process.



A little leprechaun magic...and you've got yourself a tasty four leaf clover!



I tried out a new recipe for my husband's grandmother, Memé, who loves lemon-flavored treats. I'll put a link to the lemon cookie recipe in the "STATS" section of this post. It's delicious!

STATS:

Lemon Cut-Out Cookies:
http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/2010/07/frosted-jumbo-animal-cookies.html
(After you click the link, scroll down to the bottom, and you'll see the recipe.)

Glacé Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar : 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup : 1 Tbsp. milk (Adjust amount of milk to achieve desired consistency in icing. I usually end up adding 3 or 4 extra Tbsp. of milk to get a thinner flooding consistency.)

Video tutorial for piping wet on wet icing and the marbling technique
http://www.universityofcookie.com/2010/12/fun-and-easy-way-of-decorating.html