I firmly believe that celebrating love should be a year-long event. Today I share a few cookies using Royal icing with a thicker consistency to achieve a subtle tri-dimensional effect. I’ve tried it in the past but had trouble with it. My icing was never thick enough to hold a shape. I am slowly finding my way through this method. In the end of the post I share links for the two tutorials I followed to make these cookies.

Below you see the basic steps to make the hugging bears… Flood the base with pink, let it fully set. Draw the basic outline and fill sections that do not touch with icing, allowing each section to set before moving to the next one.

Once all the piping is done and fully set, I used luster dust and vodka to add some shading and Sugarprism Tuxedo Black with a very thin brush to add the outline and details. A little bronze luster powder for the nose. For the eyes I used a black food pen, and a tiny touch of white royal icing.

A little black beaded border to close the design…

It is not easy for me to paint fine lines with a brush, but it’s another example of stuff that if you avoid, you’ll never improve. So for the bears I faced the challenge.

And now, it’s time to change gears and focus on the bunnies…

The process is more or less the same, except that the background was royal icing painted with a brush to get some texture.

I used a Sugarbelle food pen that is perfect to draw a design without showing too much like a black pen would. It is sold in a set of three, and they are called “template markers.” Available here. One of my pens arrived dry, and that seems to be a common problem with them, so keep that in mind.

For the black lines I went with a food pen, because the lines needed to be precise and sharp.

Now, let’s talk about the tutorials. Those are a little unusual. For instance, I don’t know who is the person doing the actual decorating. The owner of the etsy shop is called Yulia, and the shop is based in California, however the video is probably narrated in a foreign language. They cut that sound and play music in the background instead. A text in English explaining the basics pops up as she works. Compared to real tutorials online in which you can listen to the explanation as everything is happening, it is a bit awkward. But the cookies are all very beautiful and the explanations make them doable. You get a series of files to download, with template, materials, and a video which is usually more than 1 hour long. This is the link to the etsy shop, where you can browse through all the many lessons available.

STAY TUNED FOR MY NEXT COOKIE ADVENTURE…