Ice cream cone cookies are a staple for sweet summer-time events, and you don't need a heat wave to make drippy ice cream cone cookies. Best of all, you can make an ice cream-inspired cookie using whatever shape you like! These cookies were for a sweet first birthday party, hence the "1" shape. No matter what shape you use, you can make some great drippy cones with this technique!

What you'll need:
* baked cookie shapes, in whatever shape you want! 
* royal icing in the following colors/consistencies:
    ivory- 20 second + piping
    ice cream, whatever "flavor" you desire- 18-20 second + piping
* sprinkles (optional)
* airbrush + airbrush color (optional)

1. Bake the shape that you're turning into an ice cream. This "1" cutter was from Sinful Cutters. Find it here! Use the ivory icing to make the "cone" part of the cookie. You can airbrush it a little, if you want! Let this section fully dry. 

2. Think about where you want the ice cream to drip and not drip on your cookie. Use the piping consistency of the ice cream color to pipe a line where you DON'T want the ice cream to drip. This icing line is creating a dam to prevent or slow down the movement of the thinner icing. 

3. Flood the ice cream part with the thinner icing. Add a little extra icing to the places where you want the ice cream to be drippy.

4. Immediately after flooding the ice cream part, hold the cookie UPRIGHT. Gravity will do the drippy work for you! Gravity will pull on the thinner icing, and allow it to create natural drips. The piped lines will slow down the drippiness in those ares. Feel free to hold the cookie at different angles if you want the icing to drip in a certain direction.

5. Top off your ice cream with sprinkles, if you like!

I especially love that ever-so-subtle dribble off the edge of the cookie!

Looking for another way to decorate ice cream cookies? Check these out!

These tri-color flower cookies are the perfect way to use up leftover dough and icing! They're created by layering different icing colors in a single decorating bag (versus striping the inside of the bag with colors). Best of all, you can make them with whatever icing colors you have on hand! In this case, I had leftover red and navy blue icing- perfect for a patriotic platter of cookies! Deeply tinted icing is tough to re-purpose into another color because it's already saturated with food dye. So why not use it up to make some small treats to share with friends and family?

* Take note: prepping the icing bags takes some time, so don't let the next series of pictures alarm you. Once the final icing bag is ready to go, the flower cookies are really quick to decorate! 

What You'll Need
* baked cookie flower shapes (I used a 2 1/8" flower cutter from a concentric flower cutter set, similar to this one)
* stiff royal icing in 2-3 colors
* disposable icing bags; thin ones and at least one thicker bag 
* plastic wrap
* Wilton petal icing tip #104, and coupler/ring set (I love Ateco couplers and rings)

1. Bake your cookie shapes using your favorite roll-out cookie dough.

2. Prep your icing. You'll need 2-3 colors of icing in stiff consistency. Put each color in its own disposable icing bag. Generously cut the ends off of each bag.

3. Spread out a piece of plastic wrap, about 12" long. Squeeze the icing into a thick consistent layer, one color on top of another. I wanted the traditional red-white-blue color combo, so I layered the icing accordingly. Each icing "squirt" is about 1.25" wide x .75" tall x 4" long. It's a lot of icing. 

4. Gently fold the plastic wrap over the "pod" of icing, and continue to roll the pod to use up the remaining of the plastic wrap. Twist the plastic wrap at each end of the icing pod. 

5. Feed one end of the icing pod into an icing coupler. Turn down the opposite end. Drop the whole pod into a thicker icing bag, keeping the one end tucked next to the pod. This will prevent icing from squirting out the back of the bag when you use it!

6. Cut the exposed end of the icing pod. Squeeze out icing until you see the all of the icing colors. 

7. Time to add the icing petal tip! Petal tips have a thick and thin end. The thick end will create the middle/bottom sections of the flower petal. The thin end will create the outer edge of the flower petal. Place the icing tip according to how you want your flowers to look. Be careful as you screw down the outer ring of the coupler, because it's easy to turn the icing tip by accident. Make sure you squeeze out a little icing to make sure it looks right before you go to your cookie.

Whew! Still with me? I told you that the icing prep was lengthy! Time to actually decorate the cookies! This is easy! Hold the icing bag so that the THICK end of the icing tip is closest to the middle of the cookie. Gently squeeze the icing bag as you move the bag towards the outer edge of the cookie and then pull it back down towards where you started. Release the pressure on the bag. You made the first flower petal! Turn the cookie a bit to pipe the next petal, then repeat to create the rest of the flower. I topped off the completed flower with a few white nonpareils and sugar pearls. Perfect! 

To change the look of the flower, remove the icing tip, clean and dry it well, and replace it in a different orientation. If you're going to platter the cookies, make some flowers in solid colors so that the tri-color blooms POP!

Looking to change up the blossoms even more? Just pipe another layer of petals. BOOM!

Have a wonderful July 4th holiday!

Santa cutters?  To make mermaids?  Yup!  Let's just say that it's my own little "Christmas in July" party.  I love being able to re-purpose cutters!  I realize that it's a gift that I have that not everybody has.  Other people can sing and dance and reach the the top shelf of their kitchen cabinet without a stool.  Me?  I can make a mermaid from a Santa cutter.  #winning      

So which Santa cutters did I use for these cuties?

This Santa cutter is my current favorite to make Santa cookies.  It comes in a set with some other Wilton holiday cutters.  Find it here.

This cutter is Wilton's Santa comfort grip cutter.  Find it here.

I try to stick to my *average* sized cookie (say 3.25"-3.5") when I complete my orders.  It's ingrained in me, through my attempts at keeping things even-steven between my boys.  Otherwise known as my attempt at World Peace.

Sometimes, I still purchase mini cutters or extra big cutters because you just never know when you'll need them.  Lo and behold, an oversized Santa makes a great mermaid too!  Find this cutter here.   

So don't neglect those "out of season" cutters.  You might just find a shape that will work perfectly for your design!

I have always admired magnolia trees and the blossoms they don.  The rich, glassy leaves. The ginormous white silky blossoms.  It's just amazing to me how a tree can produce such LARGE, beautiful flowers!  Although I haven't spent much time in the South, I can just imagine a Southern Belle sipping her mint julep beneath the shade of a magnolia tree.  Sigh.

A few years back, I made a cookie magnolia and just loved it!  I decided it was high time that I shared how to make it!  

I used a six-sided flower cutter, like the one in the picture below.  I think I purchased this concentric flower set from Walmart.

What you'll need:
* six-sided flower shapes, baked with your favorite cut out cookie recipe
* white icing 20-second consistency
* green icing- just a little bit!
* yellow nonpareils (you could use yellow sanding sugar or icing if you can't find these) 
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9. About 30 seconds after piping the green center, add the yellow nonpareils.  

I love these blossoms because they use a widely available cutter, and they don't use an airbrush!  And remember, if you can't find yellow nonpareils (or don't feel like getting a huge container of them) just use yellow icing dots!

May these magnolia blossoms bring out the southern side of y'all!