How to Make Christmas Tree Cookies
After a week of the shop offline, I’m happy to announce I’m finally caught up on orders! The shop is now reopened! Thank you all for your patience. The holiday season is always a busy time (and often times stressful) when it comes to us bakers. I appreciate everyone’s understanding and support as I processed the all pending orders.
For those planning on placing a potential order from now until the New Year, the Post Office informed me shipping times are expected to be delayed another 1 or 2 days longer than normal. I just wanted to give everyone a head’s up that USPS shipping could take 5 to 7 days during the hectic holiday season, instead of the typical 3 to 5 days.
Well, with the reopening of the shop, I wanted to introduce one more Christmas cookie cutter design I had in works. It’s a rather silly idea, but it makes me smile nonetheless. Here’s a tutorial for whimsy Christmas tree cookies.
Christmas Tree Cookie Cutter
Added to the shop is this new cookie cutter for Christmas tree cookies.
The design is an animated version of a traditional Christmas tree, with a tree skirt around the base and topped with a star. However, for fun, I added hands that can be shown holding a string of Christmas lights or some similar decoration. Basically, it looks like it's asking to be decorated. :)
Template for the Christmas Tree Cookies
I provided a downloadable PDF template file for the Christmas tree design shown in this tutorial.
You can download the Christmas tree cookie template HERE.
If you have a Kopykake or Pico projector, just print it out (or pull it up on your mobile device) and you are good to go. For those without a projector, follow the suggested steps below by cutting out the template and tracing the design onto the cookie with an edible food marker.
The Decorating Process
These Christmas tree cookies can be decorated in any color scheme desirable. For this batch of Christmas tree cookies, I did a red and gold theme for a "boy" tree, and a pink and gold theme for a "girl". In the tutorial below, I show how to decorate the boy version. The girl tree version isn't too different. Just add lashes and cheeks and you should be set.
- Begin by marking where the outline of the tree should be. I made a template from the template file above and used a food marker to draw the guideline on the cookie.
Step 1
Outline over the marker guidelines and around the tree body with light green icing, then flood the section. Let this icing set for about 15 minutes.
Step 2
After the tree body had time to set, add the star topper with gold icing and the inner skirt section with red icing. Again, let this icing set for about 15 minutes.
Next, outline the tree and the hand details with a darker shade of green piping icing.
Step 3
Then, add a face to the tree and garland details, as shown below. For the garland, I piped a zig-zag pattern in gold piping icing to get that retro garland look from my childhood days.
Also, pipe a black line that droops across the middle, between the two hands. This will be the string for the Christmas lights.
Step 4
Next, add the light bulbs on the center string. I went with retro multi-colored lights, but feel free to use any color you would like. The icing for these light bulbs should be a medium consistency.
Lastly, add the ornament details. I did larger red dots and tiny gold ones to fill up the empty space.
Video Tutorial
The steps above are summarized in this time-lapse video:
As mentioned above, these Christmas tree cookies can easily be made as "females" as well. It's crazy how just changing the color scheme and adding a few eyelashes can transform a character.
Well I think this might be my last Christmas themed design for the year. There's a chance I might release a general, winter-themed design at the end of December. However, I can't be sure I'll find the time between all the holiday festivities.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving break and a joyful holiday season ahead!
