Decorating Cookies Guide

Decorating Cookies

From easy to elegant, decorated cookies let your inner artist shine.

We all love cookies.

Chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal, sugar, these simple childhood favorites just never seem to go out of style. But there's more to life than drop cookies - really! When the holidays roll around we become kitchen artists, wielding cookie cutters and icing bags to create everything from the simplest gingerbread men to shimmering, glittery cutout snowflakes. Join us as we guide you through the cookie decorating process, step by colorful step.

First, choose your cookie recipe

Elegant, light gold butter cookies are a classic choice, as is dark and spicy gingerbread. Light spice cookies hover somewhere between those extremes, with oatmeal decorating cookies offering a whole-grain option. And finally, two varieties of gluten-free cookie guarantee everyone in the crowd will be happy.

There are several distinct stages to making rollout cookies. It's easy to break the process down into simple steps that, depending on your schedule, can be spread out over the course of several weeks.

  • Cookie dough can be made in advance, and refrigerated (up to 1 week) or frozen (up to a couple of months).
  • Cookies can be rolled, cut, baked, and cooled, then stored in an airtight container (for a week) or in the freezer (up to a month), before being decorated.
  • Finished (decorated) cookies can be frozen for up to a month.

Before you begin, here are some handy all-around tips:

  • Chill cookie dough before rolling.
  • For ease of handling, roll smaller rather than larger pieces of dough; keep unrolled dough chilled until you're ready to work with it.
  • To really nail your baking time, bake and cool 3 or 4 test cookies first, before baking the whole batch.
  • Cool cookies completely before decorating.

Let's get started by making cookie dough

Next, roll your cookie dough

  1. Step 1

    Roll out your dough and cut out cookies directly on a sheet of parchment to fit your cookie sheet. Leave enough space between cut shapes for the cookies to spread a bit when baked.

  2. Step 2

    Using a small spatula, carefully remove the scraps of dough from between the cookie shapes. You can ball this up and re-roll it.

  3. Step 3

    Transfer the cookies, parchment and all, onto your cookie sheet. Voilá! Perfect cookies ready for baking, with no misshapen cookies from transferring with a spatula.

Then, choose your cutters

The ideal cookie cutter is imaginatively designed; sharp (but not dangerously so); and rigid enough to hold its shape during use. Avoid cutters with small details (e.g., a reindeer ear, an angel wing tip) that will result in tiny pieces of dough protruding from the cookie's main body; these "outliers" will burn as your cookies bake. Finally, keep size in mind. If you're an expert decorator, small cutters (requiring delicate decorations) are fine. For kids, the larger the cutter, the easier the cookie is to decorate.

Even if you have your own treasure trove of cutters, there's always room for one more, right?

View our cookie cutter selection

Finally, choose your decorating style

Are you a decorating minimalist? Don't have the patience for hours of painstaking piping? Imaginative use of a few basic cutters, icing, and colored toppings are all you really need to make good-looking cookies

Are you a cookie artist? LOVE playing with multiple bags of tinted icing to create simply gorgeous works of cookie art? We can help. See our complete cookie icing and decorating tips

Select your icing

  • Glaze
    Glaze

    Cookie glaze is thin, satiny, and dries hard. It's perfect for adding a written message, or coating with colored sugar (see below). Read more about cookie glaze consistency

  • Frosting
    Frosting

    This spreadable frosting is similar to buttercream, and stays soft on your cookies. Add sugar decorations for a fun or elegant touch.

  • Royal icing
    Royal icing

    This icing dries hard and opaque, and can be spread or piped atop cookies. Which type of royal icing should you make? Read more about royal icing consistency

Try this basic decorating technique

  1. Technique 1

    Start with a freshly iced cookie; you want to work while the icing is still wet.

  2. Technique 2

    Lay the cookie on a piece of parchment. Generously cover the cookie with sugar or sprinkles.

  3. Technique 3

    Gently tap off the excess sugar.

  4. Technique 4

    Use the parchment as a scoop to transfer the excess sugar back to a bowl, for further use. The cookie can take several hours to dry.

See all of our cookie decorating techniques

Build your own gingerbread house

Warning, construction ahead - gingerbread house construction, that is! Nothing says "family-favorite holiday project" like building your own gingerbread house. Whether you start with a "pre-fab" house or build your own, we have everything you need for your best gingerbread house ever.

Start with this recipe Step-by-step building instructions
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