Learn how to create these artistic autumnal cookies by Amber Ebbrecht of Cebe’s Cookies.
Equipment Required
- Cookie dough
- Frame cookie cutter (approximately 5×3¾”)
- Leaf cookie cutter (approximately 4½x5½”)
- Royal icing
- Piping tips size 1 and 3
- 4 couplers with rings
- 4 piping bags
- 4 twist rings
- Toothpicks
- Small paintbrush (rounded with fine tip)
- Paper towels
- Americolor gel colors: Chocolate Brown, Maroon, Forest Green, Ivory, Super Red, Orange, Terracotta, Regal Purple
- Small cup for water
- Paint palette
1
For the Autumn Leaf Cookies: Roll some cookie dough to ¼” thickness, cut with the frame cookie cutter, bake and cool completely.
2
Colour some royal icing with a mixture of the Orange and Terracotta gel colours. Using a piping bag fitted with a coupler, place a number 3 piping tip onto the bag. Thin the stiff royal icing to 20-second royal icing using small amounts of water at a time. Next, pour the thinned icing into the piping bag and tie. Pipe an outline around the cookie and flood to fill completely. If needed, use a toothpick or scribe to help move icing until it reaches all areas of the cookie. Leave to dry for at least an hour and up to overnight before moving on to Step 3.
3
Colour a small amount of royal icing with the Chocolate Brown gel colour. Also, add a little Regal Purple gel colour to neutralise the colour. Using a piping bag fitted with a coupler, place a number 3 piping tip onto the bag. Add a few drops of water so that the royal icing is piping consistency. Pipe a Y shaped tree until it fills the cookie. Some lines may be slightly curved.
4
Colour a small amount of royal icing light brown with gel colour. Using a piping bag fitted with a coupler, place a number 1 piping tip onto the bag. Thin the stiff royal icing to 20-second royal icing using small amounts of water at a time. Fill in around the dark brown lines. Additional branches may be drawn from the main tree. Leave to dry for at least 30 minutes before moving onto Step 5.
5
Using 20-second orange royal icing, pipe clumps of leaves onto various parts of the tree. Be sure that some of the tree branches are still visible through the leaves. Leave to dry for at least 30 minutes.
6
Repeat Step 5. At this point, you may pipe over some dried areas of icing to create depth and/or pipe in new areas to create a fuller tree. Let dry overnight.
7
Using a mix of Chocolate Brown and Ivory gel colour, paint the tree using a small paintbrush with a fine tip. Follow the existing pattern of the wood grain. The brown may be added to the receded areas of the icing to create depth and shadow. Painted wood grain may be added to the raised areas of the trees as well.
8
Using a mix of Maroon and Super Red gel colours, paint the background while focusing the deepest parts around the base of the cookie. Also, place the colour adjacent to the orange leaves to create contrast and depth.
9
Using a combination of Orange and Terracotta gel colours, paint the top of a few of the leaves. In the deeper crevasses, add the Terracotta gel colour to create contrast and depth.
10
For the Framed Pumpkin Cookies: Roll some cookie dough to ¼” thickness, cut with the frame cookie cutter, bake and cool completely.
11
Colour a small amount of royal icing with the Ivory gel colour. Using a piping bag fitted with a coupler, place a number 3 piping tip onto the bag. Thin the stiff royal icing to 20-second royal icing using small amounts of water at a time. Pipe a rectangle approximately 3x2½” and then flood it with the icing. If needed, use a toothpick or scribe tool to help move icing until it reaches all areas of the rectangle. Leave to dry for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight before moving on.
12
Colour a small amount of royal icing light brown with gel colour. Using a piping bag fitted with a coupler, place a number 3 piping tip onto the bag. Thin the stiff royal icing to 20-second royal icing using small amounts of water at a time. Pipe then flood a border around the ivory rectangle that echoes the overall shape of the cookie cutter. Leave to dry for 30 minutes or more.
13
Colour a small amount of royal icing with the Chocolate Brown gel colour and add a little Regal Purple to neutralise the colour. Using a piping bag fitted with a coupler, place a number 3 piping tip onto the bag. Add a few drops of water so that the royal icing is piping consistency. Pipe wood grain type lines randomly around the light brown border. Using the piping bag with light brown 20-second royal icing, fill in spaces around dark brown lines. Be sure to follow a pattern of wood grain. Leave to dry for 30 minutes or more.
14
To create depth, pipe additional lines of the same colours on top of the dried icing. Next, create a frame around the ivory rectangle. Layer your piped rectangular lines three to five times to build up the icing to create depth. Leave to dry for 30 minutes or more.
15
Colour a small amount of royal icing using Orange and Terracotta gel colours. Using a piping bag fitted with a coupler, place a number 3 piping tip onto the bag. Thin the stiff royal icing to 20-second royal icing using small amounts of water at a time. Pipe a flower shape with five petals in the bottom right corner. Next, pipe two petal shapes on the top, leaving room for the middle pumpkin. Using the ivory 20-second royal icing, repeat the process of piping a flower shape with five petals. Leave to dry for 30 minutes or more.
16
Using the orange and ivory 20-second royal icing fitted with a number 3 tip, fill in the remainder of the petals. Start with the piping bag where the stem will go and work your way to the bottom. Remember that you are creating pumpkins, therefore your piped shapes should be in somewhat curved lines. Leave to dry for at least 30 minutes before moving onto the next step.
17
Add a number 1 tip to the bag of 20 second brown icing. Pipe the stems onto each pumpkin. Pumpkin stems are usually twisted so overlap your icing lines in a circular fashion. To create additional depth, you can add a few layers so that the stems are sticking up away from the pumpkin. Leave the icing to dry overnight before painting. Next, paint with Chocolate Brown and Ivory gel colour thinned with water. Using a small paintbrush with a fine tip, lightly add the brown into the recessed areas of the wood frame. If areas become too dark, dip the paintbrush in a small amount of water and blend with the darkened area of colour. You can blend out some of the colour to create light, medium and dark shades. You can also paint wood grain in brown and/or ivory to the raised areas of the frame. Leave some areas of the original icing colour showing through.
18
Continue painting the frame with a combination of Chocolate Brown and Ivory gel colour. Remember to vary the dark, medium and light.
19
Paint the pumpkin stems with the same colours. Remember to have a variety of dark and light shades. This technique will create a 3D effect. Continue painting the frame until complete. Using the tip of the paintbrush, create small swirls to show a wood grain look.
20
Using Orange and a small amount of Terracotta gel colour, add shading to the orange pumpkins. Focus the colour by the stem, in the crevasses and at the bottom of the pumpkins.
21
Next, create contrast by just using Terracotta gel colour in the same areas with a focus on the receded parts of the pumpkin. Adding this darker colour will create dimension within the pumpkin.
22
Repeat the technique stated in Step 20 on the ivory pumpkin with the Ivory gel colour.
23
Add a small amount of Chocolate Brown gel colour to the Ivory and repeat Step 21.
24
Using Ivory gel colour, create a mountain landscape in two areas of the background. Hold the paintbrush flat on its side to cover more area.
25
Using a combination of Ivory, Chocolate Brown, and Forest Green gel colour, fill in the background landscape in three sections. Create darker areas by adding less water to the gel colour.
26
Using Ivory gel colour and the flat side of the brush, move the brush in a horizontal motion to create the background above the mountains. Add deeper areas of colour to the edges of the frame.
27
For the Framed Branches Cookies: Roll some cookie dough to ¼” thickness, cut with the frame cookie cutter, bake and cool completely.
28
Colour a small amount of royal icing with Ivory gel colour. Using a piping bag fitted with a coupler, place a number 3 piping tip onto the bag. Thin the stiff royal icing to 20 second royal icing using small amounts of water at a time. Pour the thinned icing into the piping bag and tie. Pipe a rectangle approximately 2½x1¾” then flood with ivory icing. If needed, use a toothpick or scribe tool to help move icing until it reaches all areas of the rectangle. Leave to dry for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight before moving on to the next step.
29
Colour a small amount of royal icing light brown with gel colour. Using a piping bag fitted with a coupler, place a number 3 piping tip onto the bag. Thin the stiff royal icing to 20 second royal icing using small amounts of water at a time. Pour the thinned icing into the piping bag and tie. Pipe then flood a border around the ivory rectangle that echoes the overall shape of the cookie cutter. Leave to dry for 30 minutes or more before moving onto the next step.
30
Colour a small amount of royal icing with Chocolate Brown gel colour and add a little Regal Purple gel colour to neutralise the colour. Using a piping bag fitted with a coupler, place a number 3 piping tip onto the bag. Add a few drops of water so that the royal icing is piping consistency. Scoop the icing into a piping bag and tie. Pipe wood grain type lines randomly around the light brown border.
31
Using the piping bag with light brown 20 second royal icing, fill in spaces around the dark brown lines. Be sure to follow a pattern of wood grain. Leave to dry for 30 minutes or more. To create depth, additional lines may be piped on top of dried icing. Be sure to follow the existing pattern created. Next, create a frame around the ivory rectangle. Layer your piped rectangular lines three to five times to build up the icing to create depth.
32
Fit the dark brown icing bag with a number 1 tip. Starting from the right side of the rectangle, create a Y shaped branch. Fill in the remaining parts of the branch with the light brown 20 second royal icing. Remember to work in a wood grain pattern. Leave to dry for at least 30 minutes. To create depth, pipe lines of the same colours on top of the dried icing. Be sure to follow the existing pattern created.
33
Fit the orange piping bag with a number 1 tip. Create dots loosely spaced around the branches. Using a toothpick, pull an edge of the dot to create a teardrop (leaf) shape. Leave to dry for at least 30 minutes.
34
To create depth, repeat Step 33. Let all the icing dry overnight before painting. Next, begin to fill in recessed areas of the wooden frame with Chocolate Brown gel colour. Lighter areas can be painted with Ivory gel colour. Remember to leave some of the original icing colour showing.
35
Continue painting the wooden frame. Begin to add deeper shades of the Chocolate Brown gel colour in the recessed areas to show depth. Using the tip of the small paintbrush, paint wood grain type patterns on the raised areas.
36
Continue painting the wooden frame until it is complete. As with all artwork, look at your cookie from a distance to make sure the dark, medium and light shades are present.
37
Using Chocolate Brown and Ivory gel colour, paint the tree branch in the same technique as the wooden frame.
38
Alternate Orange and Terracotta gel colour on the largest parts of the leaves (where it touches the branch).
39
Using a mixing of Super Red and Maroon gel colour, paint the sides and a few areas between the piped leaves. Paint some additional leaves on the ivory background.
40
With the Ivory gel colour, paint a horizon line in the background. Hold the paintbrush flat and on its side to cover more area. The lowest hanging tree branch should fall in front of part of the mountain landscape.
41
Using Chocolate Brown gel colour, add areas of contrast to the mountain landscape. Wet the paintbrush and work in a horizontal motion about the mountain to create the sky. Add a few touches of red leaves to create the colours for the sky. Using the piping bag of ivory icing, fitted with a number 1 tip, pipe around a few of the leaves. This will give the illusion of the background showing through. If you need to brighten any area of the background, you can use touches of this icing.