I spent most of my twenties working in flower shops. I began by spending a summer cleaning flower buckets and delivering flowers, and after several design courses and lots of in-shop experience I was able to enjoy several years making arrangements for elaborate weddings and events, professional basketball players and a past President’s daughter. I will always have a deep love for flowers, and quietly take pride in naming off (in my head) any flowers I see at the grocery store, or in an arrangement I pass.
Although I do still play with real flowers from time to time (mostly in my own garden)… now I “play” with different kinds of flowers… edible ones!
Flower cookies are fun to make because the color and design options are endless! These bright Summer Flower Decorated Cookies are what I like to call “fantasy flowers”… meaning they don’t really represent any flowers in nature.
How to make flower decorated cookies –
Start with a batch of cookies using my Sugar Cookie Recipe.
Prepare a batch of Royal Icing, and color as desired (I use Americolor gels).
For these Summer Flower Cookies I pre-made some royal icing flower centers (pictured above). Preparing these little guys ahead of time saves lots of time when decorating, and create instant texture.
To make the flower centers, simply pipe a large dot of royal icing onto a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper. The icing should be a medium consistency, I would say just a bit thicker than the consistency of shampoo. It should be thick enough to not flow all over the place, but just thin enough that it does not leave (much of) a peak in the center (when you lift up the piping tip). For these colorful flower centers, you can chose to let them dry as is (just as a simple dot), or sprinkle the (still wet) dots with sanding sugar (as shown) or nonpareils (sprinkles). Allow the flower centers to dry at least 8 hours before removing from the parchment paper. These flower centers can be made far in advance, and stored in a small tupperware type container (away from excess heat and light).
Once you’re ready to decorate, outline and fill in each cookie with the color of your choice. Allow the icing to set up (at least 1 hour), then use a small dot of icing to attach the pre-made flower center. Once you’ve added the flower center, chose a accent color to outline the shape of flower petals (as shown above). If desired, you can let the detail icing dry a bit, then add additional details such as extra dots around the flower center, or another row of flower petals (as shown below).
Love flowers and cookies? Here are a few more flower decorated cookies…
Sunflower Cookies (from Sweet Sugar Belle)
Potted Violet Cookies (from Sweet Sugar Belle)
Pink Roses (from Bake at 350)
Yes, these are beautifully decorated cookies. However, I want to thank you for breaking down the process of “How” to make these amazing cookies. You did such a great job of explaining that the average person can succeed. Even me!!! I;m inspired and can’t wait to try. Thanks Again.
These are beautiful!,, Can you tell me which Ameritech colors/color combinations you used? I,love what you did!,,,
Hi again Glory,
I would like to know what Americolor gel colors you used for the beautiful fun colors on the fantasy flower cookies. Did you have to mix different colors or are the colors right out of the bottles?
Thank you for answering my earlier post.
Stephanie
Hi Glory,
Oh how I love all your beautiful decorating and especially these fantasy flowers!
I’m new at decorating cookies and would like to know what size tips to use on the large and smaller cookies.
Thank you so much
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
Generally I use a #2 tip for the flood icing, and a #1.5PME brand tip for the details. You can use a #2 tip for everything if that’s what you have.
Gorgeous! I’m keen to try these
I have to tell you, Glory that the Summer flowered decorated cookies are completely awesome, and I do not use that term lightly.
They look just as professionally done (if not more) than anything I’ve seen at Cookies By Design or anywhere else.
I do want to know if the Royal Icing recipe you use becomes hard or does it stay soft on the cookie. One thing I will say about Cookie by Design is that their icing is soft, yet stays on the cookie.
Again, fantastic job! These are wonderful!
is there something i can use to replace the meringue powder in the royal icing recipe???
love!
this one is really cute, nice color, nice blog!