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Step 1
Choose the right cookie recipe. Gingerbread and sugar cookie doughs are commonly used for traditional rolled cookies. You can also make beautiful and elegant pressed and shaped cookies, or work with more delicate cookies, like tuiles. A thicker, denser cookie typically works best for gift giving. Visit kitchen stores for unusual cookie cutters, or cut your own cardboard templates to design a cookie that fits your occasion.
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Step 2
Bake your cookies. Be sure to choose the freshest and best quality ingredients available for good cookies. Real butter, quality vanilla and fresh spices can all make a difference. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners to help remove the finished cookies from the sheets with ease. Cookies can be skewered with a bamboo skewer before baking if you are designing cookies for a cookie arrangement.
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Step 3
Make icing while your cookies are cooling. A simple powdered sugar icing will dry hard and glossy, and work well for cookies. Combine 1 cup of sifted confectioner's sugar with 2 tsp. of milk. Stir until smooth. Add 2 tsp. of light corn syrup and 1/4 tsp. of vanilla or another flavoring extract. Add more corn syrup as needed to create the right consistency. Decorating cookies typically requires a base layer of icing to adhere all other decorations.
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Step 4
Tint your icing with food coloring. A wide range of colors are available where cake decorating supplies are sold, in liquid or gel forms. Gels are more concentrated, and less color will be required. Use a paintbrush or offset spatula to apply icing to your cookies.
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Step 5
Pipe on accents of icing with a fine tip and decorating bag. Use a toothpick to add icing in very small amounts or to apply color directly to the icing. Add sprinkles, dragees or candy accents if desired. An edible ink pen can be used on dry icing to add writing to your one-of-a-kind cookie.
