Holiday Sugar Cookies

Hanukkah Holiday Sugar Cookies – Recipes and Decorating Tutorial on ToriAvey.com

Sometimes, I have wild ideas. My imagination is always spinning (like a dreidel!!), and it’s really difficult to turn it off. I try to tell my brain to quiet down. “You don’t need any new ideas right now, you’re very busy, you’ve got enough on your plate.” But my brain won’t listen. Like last week, when I was totally swamped with Hanukkah preparations, photo shoots, media appearances and deadlines. In the middle of the holiday madness, my imagination comes up with this gem…

“I really want to teach myself how to decorate holiday sugar cookies with royal icing.”

Sounds simple enough. Holiday cookies can’t be THAT hard to make. I know how to bake cookies, and I’ve used royal icing in the past for other projects. How difficult can it be?

Fast forward to today, dozens of cookies later, as I put together the whole project for the blog. I know you can’t see me through the computer, but at this moment I’m shaking my head. How difficult can it be? Well, with nobody to stand beside me and teach me the ropes, it was very difficult indeed. VERY difficult. And yet, once I set my mind to something, I can’t give up. Luckily, I documented the whole entire process and everything I’ve learned (including the mistakes I made along the way). I’ve broken it down into three tutorials to teach you the ropes step-by-step. It’s really not so tough, if you have all of the steps clearly written out for you. By the end of these tutorials, you’ll be able to make fabulous cookies just like these:

Now, I can’t say that I’m a cookie expert by any means, though I have become slightly obsessed with the process. This whole cookie decorating thing is an art form, and there are some terrific cookie artists out there that are FAR better at this than I am. Luckily, many of them have blogged about what they know. I’ve placed links to some fantastic cookie blogs below. Some of these websites helped me along the way. If you’re at all serious about cookie decorating, you should definitely check out their sites. You’ll learn a lot!

This is a multi-step process that will take you more than 24 hours to finish. I’ve decided to break this blog up into smaller, more concentrated blogs, because if I tried to put all of the step-by-step photos onto one page it would take forever to load. I’ve linked to each step of the process below, so you can go check out each recipe and tutorial separately. You can then print the instructions from each page and staple them together to do the whole project.

I focused on Hanukkah-style cookies because it’s that time of year, but you can use these tutorials for any holiday– or any style of decoration. The tips are universal, no matter what holiday you celebrate. Once you understand the basic process, you’ll find that you can get very creative and artistic with your cookies. The only limit is your imagination!

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 HOLIDAY SUGAR COOKIE RECIPES AND TUTORIALS

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Royal Icing Recipe

How to Decorate Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

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PRODUCTS YOU WILL NEED

In addition to everyday cooking items and ingredients you can find at your local grocery store, the following specialized products are used in my tutorials. They will make the cookie making process a lot easier. You can purchase them from the links provided below (most items have free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime), craft stores, cake decorating stores or specialty culinary markets.

Hanukkah Cookie Cutters

Star of David Cookie Cutter
(or you can use cookie cutters of your choice)

Meringue Powder

Food coloring for icing

Blue Pearlized Sprinkles

White Pearlized Sprinkles

 Cookie and Cupcake Decorating Bottles and Icing Tips

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FABULOUS COOKIE DECORATING SITE

Sweet Sugar Belle

Great tips and tutorials, as well as some helpful royal icing videos here.

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