These simple and beautiful Winter Wonderland Cookies are perfect for any winter holiday or party!
Here in California we still have lots of sunshine… but I can dream of snow with these cute cookies!
One of my favorite things about this set of cookies is that it only requires a few icing colors and some very simple techniques to create a fun and engaging collection!
And although these cookies would be adorable for Christmas, they’d also be perfect for any winter holiday or party… all the way into January.
Let’s decorate and dream of snow together!
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Winter Wonderland Cookies Decorating Instructions –
Start with a batch of my Perfect Sugar Cookies.
For this set you’ll need some round cookies (large and mini), some snowflakes and a simple tree (I used a mini tree cutter from Ecrandal, but I do not see it on their site currently).
Prepare a batch of Royal Icing.
For this set, I made…
Pale blue icing with a #2 tip, medium/flood consistency
Lime green icing with a #2 tip, medium/flood consistency
Medium-dark green icing with a #2 tip, medium/flood consistency
White icing with a #1.5 tip, piping consistency
White icing with a #2 tip, medium/flood consistency
You’ll also need white non-pareils sprinkles and white and/or light blue snowflake sprinkles (optional)
I’m trying something new and sharing the decorating process with a video, in place of step-by-step photos.
I’d love your feedback as to which you prefer (photos or video). Please don’t say “both”… I’m only human! =)
Enjoy this short video for the step-by-step decorating tutorial…
A few additional decorating notes…
For the large round cookies (the tree scene), the trees should be added immediately after the cookie has been “flooded” with the white and blue icing.
For the mini trees, (pictured in this post, but not show in the video) the same technique (called “wet-on-wet”) should be used.
For the snowflakes, outline and flood the cookies, then allow to dry (1-4 hours) before adding the white details.
How to Make Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing
Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing
Ingredients
Perfect Sugar Cookies
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt good quality
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg large
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract good quality, see flavor options in notes
Royal Icing
- 4 tablespoons meringue powder
- 4 cups powdered sugar about 1 pound
- 6 tablespoons warm water to start
Instructions
Perfect Sugar Cookies
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This should take 2-3 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat another minute or so.
- Add the flour mixture slowly. (Be careful not to add too much at a time or you will have a snowstorm of flour.)
- Blend until all of the flour is incorporated. The mixture will look crumbly at first but just keep blending until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Remove about half of the dough from the bowl and knead by hand just a bit to form a smooth ball. Roll out dough onto a lightly floured work surface, or onto a piece of plastic wrap (as described in detail in the blog post above).
- Cut out cookies into desired shapes and place entire baking sheet of unbaked cookies into the freezer for 5 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F and bake cookies in preheated oven for 9-11 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of your cookies.
- The cookies are baked when then are no longer shinny on top, but they will not show much of any change in color.
- Cool on baking sheet just a minute or so, then carefully move to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool fully before decorating.
Royal Icing
- Beat all ingredients until stiff peaks form.
- Spoon some of the thick white icing into individual bowls and add coloring .
- Add additional water, about 1 teaspoon at a time until you’ve reached the consistency you need.
Notes
Nutrition
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Happy winter cookie decorating!
Disclosure – Amazon links provided for your convenience. I may receive a small commission when you shop using the links in this post.
I loved your video! I’m going to try these very soon. Thank you
Yay! Thanks for your comment. I hope you do give them a try!
These are the most beautiful cookies I have ever seen. I’ve never decorated cookies and don’t think I have the skills or patience to do so but these make me want to try! 🙂
These cookies are brilliant! Your icing is PERFECT! Can’t wait to try this recipe!
I would love to have your actual recipe for the icing. I’m kind of experienced but need the best recipe. Beautiful Beautiful designs !! Thank you.
Hi Billie,
Yes, I’ve included the link to the icing recipe (Royal Icing) in the blog post above.
What size Wilton tips are you using for each color? I like to use #4 for flooding and #2 for finer details. Which size do you use?
The tip sizes I used are listed above (#2 for flooding, PME brand #1.5 for details), but #4 for flooding and #2 for details would be great for most cookie designs too. For this design you might want to use a #2 for any of the green, so the trees have some definition… I think a #4 for those might be a bit large. Happy decorating!
Love these cookies, you make it look so easy, I am going to give it a try…thanks for sharing…….
Thanks for your sweet comment!
The video is great! Thank you!
Thanks so much for your feedback! I’m going to definitely try to do more videos!
WOW!!! Unbelievable that someone could do these by hand. What a talent you have. Too pretty to eat. HA!
Awe, thanks so much Charlotte! It is an art I find a lot of joy in!
I loved the video. Thank you so much. They look just beautiful.
Thanks so much for your feedback! I’m going to definitely try to do more videos!
Glory, Love and prefer the Video!!
Awesome, thanks for your input! I’m not quite able to do all posts with videos, but I will definitely try to do more!