Adding a painted watercolor effect to cookies is a great way to make beautiful, decorated cookies without using more royal icing! These Painted Sugar Cookies are a unique and fun cookie decorating idea that is easy for beginners and everyone in between. Great as holiday cookies!
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If you’re thinking that painted cookies looks hard to make, let me assure you…that many people are creating watercolor art on cookies on their first attempt at!
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Many people have a blast making these painted cookies and couldn’t believe how quickly they got the hang of it. Other cookie decorators use this effect and thought it was such a great idea. Starting out with a simple design, like trees, will give you good practice, and it’s such a pretty cookie for the holidays or Christmas!
If you are hesitant about creating elaborate cookie designs with Royal Icing, then watercolor painting or painted sugar cookies is a great alternative to that.
Painted Cookies or Painted Sugar Cookies
Adding a painted watercolor effect to cookies is an great way to make beautiful, decorated cookies without using more royal icing! These painted cookies or painted Sugar Cookies are a unique and fun cookie decorating idea that is easy for beginners and everyone in between. Great as holiday cookies!
To make painted cookies, just make a quick and easy glaze for cookies by warming canned white frosting in the microwave. Then paint colorful designs on the cookie shapes using Flavor Paints – a fragrant mix of vanilla or lemon extract and food color. Simple right? That’s just all about painted sugar cookies.
How to Make These Painted Cookies
- Prep Time: 30mins
- Cook Time: 10mins
- Total Time: 40mins
- Calories: 167
- 7 ingredients
Materials & Kitchen Utensils Used: Flat/wide brush, food colors, large bowls (microwaveable), electric mixer, foil-covered baking sheet, 3-inch, cookie cutters, timer, spatula, oven, freezer, wire racks, stirrer, cake plate or serving board.
Ingredients – 36 Servings
- 2¾ cups of flour
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of (2 sticks) softened butter
- 1½ cups of sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons of McCormick® All Natural Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 container (16 ounces) white frosting
To make painted cookies, you will need:
- Cookies that have been flooded with white royal icing (completely dried and hard)
- Small bowls or a ceramic egg holder to hold the paint colors in. I like the egg holder because it’s so easy to move about and switch colors.
- Assorted paint brushes; the tree branches look best using a squared tip brush
- Clear grain alcohol (you can use vodka, ever-clear is also recommended)
- An eye dropper; this is the best tool to control the consistency of the color
- Food coloring; For this design, you can use Americolor’s ‘Moss’ & ‘Silver Spruce’
- Paper towels to blot off excess paint.
- A paint proof surface to work on. Bakers lay a sheet of plastic wrap down on the surface to ensure their counters don’t get stained.
Making the Painted Sugar Cookies Using a Tree Design
Start by adding a few drops of the Moss Green food coloring into the dish and dilute it slightly with a few drops of vodka.
Using a flat/wide brush, create several tree trunks. You want to try and make the color a bit deeper for the trunks to give the trees a sturdy center.
Using the corners of the brush, lightly dab branches on either side of the center. If you repeat some dabs on top of the branches you already made, it gives the tree more depth.
With the darkest trees made, dilute the food coloring with a few more drops of vodka to lighten the color. Make a few more trees at different heights behind the darker ones.
If you have other shades of green (the Silver Spruce color is gorgeous and works wonderfully for this design), add a drop to the green color you’ve already made or into a new bowl/cavity. It helps to mix up the shades/tones of greens to give the trees a more of a woodsy, forest look.
Lastly, add a little dab of color to the bottom of the cookie and thin it out with a bit of pure vodka on your brush. Add a different shade of green and swirl it on top for contrast to make the ground that the trees stand on.
Below is a pic showing the painted cookies AmeriColor’s ‘Fog’ color is used; It depicts a snow design. So pretty!!
So, painted sugar cookies can be created with very simple designs, but it’s easy to see that you can paint cookies (painted sugar cookies) with any design you come up with!!
Instructions on Making Painted cookies
To make painted cookies:
- Start with cookies that have been flooded with royal icing and the royal icing is completely hard & dry.
- Add a few drops vodka to a small bowl or dish and then add a drop or two of gel food coloring.
- Mix with your brush and blot off the excess paint. You’re ready to start painting!
- Allow the cookies to dry for an hour or so after painting, before packaging.
To make a tree design:
- Start by adding a few drops of the Moss Green food coloring into the dish and dilute it slightly with a few drops of vodka.
- Using a flat/wide brush, create several tree trunks. You want to try and make the color a bit deeper for the trunks to give the trees a sturdy center.
- Using the corners of the brush, lightly dab branches on either side of the center. If you repeat some dabs on top of the branches you already made, it gives the tree more depth. Be sure to blot your paintbrush on a paper towel along the way!
- With the darkest trees made, dilute the food coloring with a few more drops of vodka to lighten the color. Make a few more trees at different heights behind the darker ones.
- If you have other shades of green (the Silver Spruce color is gorgeous and works wonderfully for this design), add a drop to the green color you’ve already made or into a new bowl/cavity. It helps to mix up the shades/tones of greens to give the trees a more of a woodsy, forest look.
- Lastly, add a little dab of color to the bottom of the cookie and thin it out with a bit of pure vodka. Add a different shade of green and swirl it on top for contrast.
- Allow to dry before packaging (about 1 hour or so).
Note: Remember – Never use water to paint cookies. It will dissolve the royal icing!
Further Instructions on Making Painted Cookies
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed.
- Roll out dough on generously floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out shapes, such as rounds or flowers, with 3-inch cookie cutters. Place on ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges start to brown. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.
- Spoon frosting into medium microwavable bowl. Microwave on high for 20 to 30 seconds, stirring every 10 seconds. (Frosting should be a pourable consistency.) Dip tops of cookies into frosting. Place frosted cookies on wire rack set over foil-covered baking sheet. (The baking sheet will catch drips.) Let stand 10 minutes or until frosting is dried.
- Prepare desired colors of Flavor Paints (see below). Using small clean paint brushes, paint designs on cookies.
- Flavor Paints:
- Rosy Red: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract and 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Red Food Color
- Deep Ocean Blue: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract and 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Blue Food Color
- Blackest Night: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract and 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Black Food Color
- Grass Green: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Lemon Extract and 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Green Food Color
- Lemony Yellow: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Lemon Extract and 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Yellow Food Color
- Neon Blue: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Lemon Extract and 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Neon Blue Food Color
- Neon Green: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Lemon Extract and 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Neon Green Food Color
- Neon Purple: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract and 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Neon Purple Food Color
- Neon Pink: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Lemon Extract and 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Neon Pink Food Color
- Deep Pink: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract and 15 drops McCormick® Red Food Color
- Medium Pink: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract and 5 drops McCormick® Red Food Color
- Light Pink: 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract and 2 drops McCormick® Red Food Color
Instead of Flavor Paints, try decorating with Colorful Cookie Icing. Mix 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, 3 to 4 teaspoons milk and 1/2 teaspoon McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract in small bowl. (Stir in additional milk as needed to thin icing or more confectioners’ sugar to thicken, if needed.)
Place small amount of icing into small shallow bowls, using one bowl for each color desired. Stir 3 to 4 drops McCormick Assorted Food Colors & Egg Dye into icing until desired shade is reached. To ice cookies, hold cookie by its edge and dip top of cookie into icing. (Or spoon the icing onto cookie using a teaspoon.) Place iced cookies on wire rack set over foil-covered baking sheet to dry. (The foil-covered baking sheet will catch drips.)
To add decorative details to cookies, spoon tinted icing into resealable plastic bag. Snip off a tiny piece of the corner. Squeeze icing through hole in plastic bag to decorate cookies. If desired, Colored Sugar may be sprinkled onto freshly iced cookies.
Painted Sugar Cookies Are So Easy
To make painted cookies, you don’t need to be an artist by any means. For a tree design, simply allowed the brush to form the branches and it will come out pretty neat!
The only part that you need royal icing for is the base layer. You will need a surface to paint on; you cannot paint directly onto the cookie.
Once you make your cookies, use Royal icing to flood the cookie. It’s recommended to keep the icing pure white so that all of my colors stand out.
Once the cookies are flooded, let them dry overnight. You need the icing to be completely dry and hard in order to proceed with painting.
Now, you’re ready to paint!
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Painted Cookies | Learn Very Easy Methods to Make Your Own Super Mouth-Watering Painted Sugar Cookies (With Pics, Videos & FAQs)
Adding a painted watercolor effect to cookies is a great way to make beautiful, decorated cookies without using more royal icing! These Painted Sugar Cookies are a unique and fun cookie decorating idea that is easy for beginners and everyone in between. Great as holiday cookies!
Type: Dessert
Cuisine: German
Keywords: Painted Cookies
Recipe Yield: 36 Servings
Calories: 280kcal
Preparation Time: 30M
Cooking Time: 10M
Total Time: 40M
Recipe Ingredients:
- 2¾ cups of flour
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of (2 sticks) softened butter
- 1½ cups of sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons of McCormick® All Natural Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 container (16 ounces) white frosting
Recipe Instructions:
To make painted cookies:
Start with cookies that have been flooded with royal icing and the royal icing is completely hard & dry.
To make a tree design:
Start by adding a few drops of the Moss Green food coloring into the dish and dilute it slightly with a few drops of vodka.
Using a flat/wide brush, create several tree trunks. You want to try and make the color a bit deeper for the trunks to give the trees a sturdy center.
Using the corners of the brush, lightly dab branches on either side of the center. If you repeat some dabs on top of the branches you already made, it gives the tree more depth. Be sure to blot your paintbrush on a paper towel along the way!
With the darkest trees made, dilute the food coloring with a few more drops of vodka to lighten the color. Make a few more trees at different heights behind the darker ones.
If you have other shades of green (the Silver Spruce color is gorgeous and works wonderfully for this design), add a drop to the green color you’ve already made or into a new bowl/cavity. It helps to mix up the shades/tones of greens to give the trees a more of a woodsy, forest look.
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