CHRISTMAS ANGEL WINGS
If you’ve known either of us for more than a minute, you’ve probably heard us express an INTENSE dislike for the cold winter and snow. AND yes… we live in Utah. Home of the greatest snow on earth….bleh. What are we thinking, right?
Someday we will pack ourselves up and run away to a warm beach somewhere to escape the cold forever. Until then, we will continue to complain.
Christmas is winter’s one saving grace and the one day of the year we enjoy the brief presence of snow on Christmas morning. However, in our heart of hearts, we know the day would be better celebrated barefoot in the sand with seashells hanging from a palm tree and drinking dirty Diet Cokes. Christmas in July is the closest thing to a Christmas beach party us Utahans are ever going to know!
ONLY… there’s still no beach. Well, technically there is…BUT it’s not exactly tropical. There are definitely NO palm trees and It stinks like rotten eggs.
SO, while we can’t invite you all over for Christmas and pina coladas in a tropical paradise, we ARE really excited to share a new Christmas cookie tutorial with you! It’s a virtual Christmas party of sorts! Some of you are so on it and you’ve already got your holiday designs planned out. Our mom would be so proud of you! There is nothing mama Blyss loves more than an organized, task oriented planner. For the rest of us, (sorry mom) this is a great one to add to the list!
And since it IS still July (and 100 degrees outside) we went with a little less traditional (more tropical) color palette. We’re really excited about this new cutter and coordinating stencil because it would be adorable done in so many color combinations and could be used for so many different occasions. You’ll be seeing this cutter/stencil duo again in more of our tutorials coming soon!
Icing Colors
medium pink piping and flood
off white piping (we love to just stir a little of the medium pink icing into white icing to give it just a little tint)
YOU CAN FIND OUR FAVORITE GEL COLORS HERE
Supplies
Blyss angel wing CUTTER
Blyss angel wing STENCIL
an icing scraper (like THIS)
a stencil holder like THIS (or you can use a STENCIL SNAP, STENCIL GENIE, or even just two NOTTA COOKIES)
WAFER PAPER greenery, airbrushed in different shades of green. We used this, this and this
Airbrush colors (dusty rose, forest green, teal and mojito)
needle tip applicator BOTTLE (filled with EDIBLE GLUE or corn syrup)
scissors & tweezers
Once your cookies are baked and cooled, you’re ready to decorate!
Start by outlining and filling your cookies with your medium pink piping and flood. We like to dry our cookies in front of a heater fan like THIS. It speeds up drying time so you can move on with decorating and it also gives the cookies a smooth glassy finish. You only need to leave them in front of the fan for about 15-20 minutes (could be longer depending on weather and climate).
STEP 1
After your cookies have had a chance to dry and the surface of the icing is crusted over, you can airbrush the edges with a dusty rose color to create a vintage or distressed look. The darker color around the edges also helps create the visual of an outline and brings out the details in the design a little more.
Need help with basic airbrushing?
STEP 2
Your frosting should be dry on the surface but will still be wet underneath so handle those cookies with care!. Use your stencil holder or your Notta Cookies to secure the stencil and center it on your cookie. Carefully apply some of your light pink piping icing across the top of the stencil. Use your icing scraper to smear a thin layer of icing evenly across the stencil. Lightly dust the icing with Flash Dust BEFORE lifting your stencil off the cookie.
Need help scraping stencils?
STEP 3
Airbrush your wafer paper greenery in different shades of green. We used Amerimist forest green, mojito and teal. To keep the wafer paper from flying away, we like to hold ours down on a napkin or paper towel with the end of a toothpick while we airbrush it. Sometimes the wafer paper tries to curl when it gets moisture on it - like airbrush color or edible paint. Sometimes it’s a good thing because it helps your details stand off the cookie and adds dimension. If it’s curling more than you want, place it under something flat like a Notta Cookie right after airbrushing/painting it. That will help it stay flat as the coloring dries. After they’re colored and dry, trim your wafer paper greenery to size and attached them to the cookie using THIS needle tip applicator bottle filled with corn syrup. Allow the corn syrup to set for a few minutes before moving onto the next step. When you’re ready, cluster and attach the three glitter pearls with a small dots of syrup for each pearl. We prefer to use corn syrup over icing to attach any kind of embellishment to our cookies because It only takes a small amount to secure things in place, it dries clear and it has a stronger hold. If corn syrup isn’t your thing, you can also use this EDIBLE GLUE.
NEEDLE TIP APPLICATOR BOTTLE
If you haven’t ever worked with wafer paper details from Intricut Edibles, we highly recommend you do! They have SO many adorable detailed designs that are pre-cut and ready to go! All of the embellishments come cut out of white wafer paper so you can customize the color to match your design. It’s easy to add color to them with your airbrush or edible paint. They’re a huge time saver!
MERRY BLYSSMAS!
We were thrilled when LILALOA and SWEET SUGARABELLE asked us to contribute to a “Christmas in July” cookie collaboration with so many other talented decorators and cookie friends!
Collaborations have felt like a thing of the past in recent years BUT - Holidays have a way of making us feel sentimental about the good old days and taking us down memory lane. There are so many great holiday cookie ideas all wrapped up together in one collaboration - like the Christmas gift you didn’t even ask for! If you’re not ready for the Christmas cookie season - don’t worry - these decorators have you covered.
We’d love to see and share the angel wings you create!
still need more?
If you’re feeling in the Christmas mood and you want to see more from this collaboration, please be sure to follow the links below!
