Here in the Pacific Northwest we’ve recently been buried under record amounts of snow, so I’ve really been missing the sunshine and everything that comes with it. Today I’m going to show you how to do something simple and fun, and the only extra tool you’ll need is a small paintbrush. Everyone loves a cookie with a beautiful flower on it, right? There’s all sorts of ways to put a flower on a sugar cookie, but this is probably one of the easiest. Once you try it, you may never want to pipe out a flower onto a nail again!
To make this cookie design, begin by baking some round sugar cookies using a recipe like this one I always use- they need to be flat when they’ve been baked! You can make them in whatever size you would like, I’ll show them on cookies that are 3″ across as well as some bite-size 1″ across cookies in this post. Next, you should line and flood the cookies using the royal icing recipe I’ve written up here. Color your icing however you choose, but I am personally a fan of a vibrant color so that the flower really ‘pops’ when you paint it on there. Allow your flooded cookies time to fully harden, ideally overnight. You won’t want your icing surface to dent or crumble once you’re pressing on it with a paintbrush.
Next, make another batch of royal icing, this time white, and at a piping consistency. Load it into a decorating bag capped with a #2 decorating tip. Set up your work station- you’ll need a small bowl of water, a small rounded (oval) tip paintbrush, and a paper towel to blot your brush on. You can use whatever paintbrush you want, but I find that a 1/2″oval tipped brush is my favorite. Some people will prefer a flat edge or an angled brush, whatever you feel comfortable with will be fine.
Begin your flower petals by piping two connected semi-circles on the edge of your cookie- think like you’re piping a seagull, or a very wide McDonald’s symbol! Pipe the design once and then back over the top so you have a thick double line. Now wet your paintbrush and blot it on the paper towel until it is just damp, not dripping wet. Working carefully, pull the line of icing toward the center of the cookie, leaving the outer edge intact for the edge of the petal.
Dip your brush in the water and blot before beginning each new petal. As the icing dries, it will become more visible so don’t worry if it looks a bit unimpressive at first. Brush lines in the petal itself are desirable, but try to feather the inside of the petal where it ends so that there are no big ridges in the middle of the cookie- a little extra water on your brush will smooth any ridges out easily.
Continue around the edge of the cookie, making double arches until you have a full circle of outer petals.
Now move to the inside petals. Make one arch for every two outer petals- so you’ll have half as many inside petals as outside. The technique remains the same, though- dip the brush, blot the extra water, and pull the icing towards the middle of the cookie.
Once you have completed the inside circle of petals, you can allow the cookie to harden for a few minutes. Swap out your #2 tip for a #1 and pipe some dots into the middle of the cookie for an interesting detail. And that’s all there is to it! It’s a technique that will get easier each time you do it. Make sure to send me your questions and let me know how it worked out for you in the comments!
