As I mentioned in my last post, this cookie is a work in progress, because the intricate piping was a a bit beyond my skill level. Marlyn designed a real masterpiece, and I knew it would be a challenge to try and get it right. But if we don’t get out of our comfort zone, we never improve. So here is my first attempt, not sure I’ll have a chance to re-visit it before the holiday season is over, but there is always next year… Marlyn’s detailed tutorial and template for the stencil are part of her Patreon site. You can find it here.

The cookie starts by flooding with Royal icing in the color of your choice for the background. That layer needs to fully set, so you can apply the stencil on top (available at Marlyn’s site as a Silhouette or Cricut file), and use that to spray paint the design (using a very soft color that will be barely visible). Once that dries, you can lay the drawing with piping consistency Royal icing, and that is the tricky part. I reduced the size of the cookie, which was not a very clever move. For a drawing as complex as this, bigger is easier.

For the air-brushing I used pearl white, so that even if I was not able to cover each detail, it would not be a problem.

Some of my colors were a little off in the consistency, so the piping was not as sharp as I wanted. But for a first attempt I am pretty happy with them. Of course, there is no need to wait for the next holiday season to practice this technique. It can be used for all kinds of cookies, and Valentine’s will be a perfect excuse for me to try it again… Stay tuned!