Lace Cookies for Christmas

This Christmas, I wanted to make something special for some wonderful women I know.

I found a design for intricate lace cookies at http://cakecreationsforyou.blogspot.com/. Nadia is the decorator from the site, and she creates beautiful cookies.

I'm really happy with how the cookies turned out!

To make the lace pattern, I first outlined the heart shape with royal icing. Using the same icing, I made 14 straight lines running diagonally across the cookie.

Then, I added perpendicular lines to create a grid.

I used glace icing (in a flood consistency), to fill in the larger spaces of the heart.

Then, I added dots of icing into the grid, creating a pattern I liked. There are so many patterns you could make using this technique. Have fun and get creative! 

I noticed that you get a very different look in the lace if you allow the grid to dry before adding the dots of icing. In this photo, I piped the dots while the icing of the grid was still wet. You can see how the design has sort of "melted" together.

On this cookie, I allowed the grid to dry before piping the dots. The dots stayed separate and are quite distinct. Honestly, I think both techniques made a pretty cookie, and I can't decide which I like better.

For the gold lettering, I mixed a little brown food coloring into the royal icing to get a tan color. I piped the words with the tan royal icing and allowed it to dry. Then, I mixed gold luster dust with a little vanilla extract and used that to "paint" the words. You can see the difference the luster dust makes here, where I only used luster dust on the letter "o" in "world."

I used zip-top baggies with the corners cut off as the icing bags for this entire project. If you would like to use piping bags and tips, I would suggest using a #1 or #2 writing tip.

I loved making these cookies and thinking about the women I'd be giving them to. I hope they know how much they are loved. 

STATS:

Nadia's Video: "How to Make a Lace Cookie" Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKjM7Wm845w

Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Roll-Out-Cookies-240668

How to "flood" a cookie with icing
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/blog/2011/07/outlining-and-filling-cookies-with-royal-icing/

Royal Icing
http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/2012/12/royal-icing-recipe.html

Glacé Icing
http://www.thatreallyfrostsme.com/2010/05/glace-icing.html