Oh man, you guys. The ‘winter’ weather here in the Pacific Northwest is not my cup of hot cocoa. Lots of rain, wind, and absolutely zero snow. I grew up on the opposite coast, with four distinct seasons to enjoy, and I’ve really been missing them lately. So I decided to cheer myself up with a little homemade winter in my kitchen today! This kind of cookie might seem like something you’d admire but could never actually make yourself, but I’ve broken down the steps and it was surprisingly not half as tough as you might think. You’ll have to invest a fair amount of time, but I bet you already have the talent!There are a few tools you’ll need for this cookie, but nothing crazy. You’ll want a scribe (also known as an etcher), and a small silicone scraper. Wilton makes a great starter set that also has a three-prong comb for any marbling you might want to do on another design. You’ll also want a clean, fine paintbrush (you can use a normal craft paintbrush as long as it’s new). You’ll also need the standard icing bags and #1 and #2 tips. That’s it! Let’s get this party started.
You’ll want to begin by baking round sugar cookies. (Find the best recipe here.) A change that I like making for holiday cookies is to swap out the normal almond extract for the same amount of peppermint extract. It’s not overpowering but definitely helps evoke The Season. Cut them with whatever size circle you want, but keep in mind that the smaller your circle, the smaller your detail work is going to be. For this post, I used a 3.5″ round. After they’ve cooled, flood them with sky blue royal icing and allow it to set for several hours. While you wait, mix up a medium batch of white royal icing that is medium firm- thicker than you would use to flood (you don’t want it running all over the place), but thin enough that if you pipe two lines next to each other the lines will merge after a moment.
Once you’re ready, it’s time to get started on the birch trees. There’s something so pretty about a birch tree no matter the season, right? Here’s a cheat sheet to help you out- We’re going to think of our trees in terms of thickness, with a 1 being thin, a 2 being medium, and a 3 being the thickest tree you’re going to make. Our trees will go in this order: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2. We’re going to pipe our trees with a #2 tip. Go ahead and make your first tree by piping a line down and then right back up next to it (so two lines of icing) on the leftmost side of the cookie. Once your line has settled a moment, use your scribe to pull out small knots and nubs from the trunk. Don’t get crazy with it, a couple per tree is plenty. You’ll want to pull the icing from the center of the trunk to the side. You’ll want to work reasonably quickly so that your icing doesn’t begin to set. Make sure to smooth any spiky points back down into the white icing before you call it good on that tree.
Continue down the line making trees and pulling the sides here and there with the scribe. I found it worked best to do one tree at a time, and complete it before moving on to the next one, rather than risk the icing setting up before I could get back to the first trunk. Once you’ve gotten all your trees done, put your feet up and allow them to set for a few hours by a fan, or overnight. You’ll want them to be pretty solid before moving on to the next step.
Now, it’s time to get your snowflakes on! Using the same white icing as before, with the same #2 tip, pipe dots in between all your trees. You may find that when you pipe a dot, it ends up with more of a Hershey kiss shape than a rounded dot. You can fix this! After you’ve dotted your entire cookie and let the snowflakes sit for about 30 seconds beyond that, grab that small silicone scraper and very lightly tap the top of each snowflake with the flat side, using just enough pressure to crumble over the pointed tip without damaging the actual shape of the dot. Everything will end up looking perfectly round!
Squeeze a few drops of black gel food coloring into a small dish or ramekin. Dip the tip of your paintbrush into the food coloring, but don’t load the brush with too much gel! You’re going to be making very fine lines. Carefully pull the brush across the tree trunks in randomly spaced intervals. For the thinnest trees, you’ll pretty much only be able to make dashes, but that’s okay. It’ll look awesome, trust me!
Make sure that your lines stay random- some going all the way across, some only on the left side, others on the right. It’ll help make everything look natural. If you feel like you don’t have good control of the gel on the brush (if it feels too thick or too dark) you can dip the tip of your brush into water and then into the dye. It’ll lighten the color and the load on the brush, but try not to dilute the gel too much or it may run. Continue until all your trees are painted, and allow the gel to dry for at least half an hour.
I’m not going to lie, the birds are by far the most painful part of this entire journey we’re on. But if I can do this, you can do this! Mix up a small batch of red royal icing of the same medium thickness as the birch trees. Take a deep breath and pipe a bird shape low on the second from the left tree. Easy to type, not so easy to do? It really isn’t that bad. You’ll want to start at the head, squeezing out a circle of icing, then dip down in a shallow “U” shape to make the belly and tail. Move back across towards the head to fill in the top, and then grab your scribe and move the icing around until you have your desired shape. Aim to give the head a little point like a cardinal if you can, but don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t worry if it looks like a janky little blob messing up your beautiful cookie. We’ll be adding more details later, and it’ll pretty right up. Make another bird higher up on the middle tree, and then one more on the tree farthest to the right. Allow your birds time to harden up.
Now we’re going to go back over each bird, piping a dot into the middle of each body for a wing. You can use your scribe to shape it a bit if you choose to, or your scraper to tap down any icing points that crop up in the process. Another pause here for some more drying time. You weren’t going anywhere today anyway, were you?
We’re almost done. Now you’ll get into the finest of your detail work. Because royal icing starts to set up so fast after hitting the air, I keep it all in piping bags even when I don’t intend to pipe it, and this is what I recommend you do as well for your last two colors, black and orange. Mix up small, medium-firm batches of each and put them into piping bags with whatever tip you like. We’ll start with the black. Squeeze some out onto a plate and pick up small amounts of it with the tip of your scribe. You want to apply it to the teeny-tiny face of your cardinal. Make a line down the side of the face, and try to make an eye next to that. DO NOT CRY if your first one, or second one, or fifth one isn’t exactly right. Click on the photo above to enhance it- you’ll see what I mean. It’s just a matter of practice, and believe you me, lots of mine looked awful at first! I needed to squeeze out more black icing onto the plate for almost every bird to keep it loose and workable.
After you’ve gotten through all the faces, you’ve done the hardest thing. Give yourself another pat on the back and follow the same general procedure of icing on a plate with orange royal icing, but use it to make a small beak on each of your birds and as feet underneath. Stay calm and remember that it’s going to taste amazing no matter what. Continue until all the birds have beaks and feet.
You’re done! Was it as terrible as you thought it might be, or were you pleasantly surprised? Let me know if I can help you troubleshoot anything giving you a hard time; and don’t eat them all in one day- or do, I won’t judge you!
