Elegant Christmas Cookies with Seasonal Florals

Anita took our classic Christmas Tree shapes and reimagined them in unexpected and elegant ways. By adding gold-tinted floral details to the trees against a backdrop of romantic script and sheet music designs, these regal trees offer old-world elegance with a nod to modern techniques. Anita says of this project that "The vision was to bring forth 'a cookie coalescence of an unconventional Christmas tree with a vintage design to create a thoughtfully curated collection that is elegant, imaginative, sophisticated, and regal."

There was intention with every detail, including the selection of blooms--she used classic holiday blooms and meaningful seasonal florals. Below is what they represent:

Anemone: Enjoy the moment

Gerbera Daisy: Cheerfulness

Hibiscus: Beauty

Holly: The magic of the season

Rose: Love

Poinsettia: Goodwill

The rich, jewel-toned colors were selected to complement the vintage script and sheet music stamps as well as the edible 24 carat gold luster and pearl details. The colors and accents were carefully selected to give the collection dimension, texture, and old-world grandeur. The more you look, the more details become apparent--from the gorgeous texture of the gerbera daisy to each of the hand-piped stamens on the anemone, piped in varying lengths for natural appeal. Amassed together, these reimagined Christmas trees make a stunning visual statement. Anita says, "My hope was to really draw the viewer's eye to the intricate details of the blooms & the poeticism of collection in its entirety, as if to tell a story of a romantic serenade (hence sheet music) or a handwritten love letter (maybe to 'Santa, baby')...that only the viewer knows the ending to. An ending that is...a sweet treat."

Anita says, "Just as I saw the classic Pumpkin in a whole new light and perspective, so did I see the classic Christmas Tree." Below are the steps for creating your own luxe floral Christmas tree cookies at home. As with the Vintage Lambeth Pumpkin designs, the beauty of these ornate Christmas Tree cookies is in the individuality. Anita describes, "The beauty of designing cookies is there is no true rule to it. It's your interpretation, just like blooms. No two people will pipe identically. And there's a sense of originality and beauty to that." This is your opportunity to express your creativity, to practice new techniques, and to be empowered to discover your sense of individuality through edible art.

Products Used:

Preparing the Dough & Baking:

Recipe: Our signature Ann Clark Sugar Cookie Recipe is a foolproof, beginner-friendly recipe for cookies that taste great and hold their shape.

Anita used the Ann Clark Perfect Cookie 1/4 inch Fixed Depth Hardwood Rolling Pin. Made of sturdy maple hardwood, this rolling pin ensures uniformly thick cookies that bake evenly in the oven.

Pro tip: When the cookies are still hot and fresh out of the oven, do one quick pass with a fondant smoother. This will smooth out bumps and level your decorating surface.

Flooding:

To ensure that the blooms make a statement and that you're able to easily apply any stamps or stencils, you'll need a flat, uniform base layer. Whether you dip or pipe your flood layer, be sure to eliminate any air bubbles and smooth out any bumpy areas that may form.

If dipping: Anita mixed up a 5 second flood consistency icing. Placing the icing in a bowl, she dipped the cookies into the icing, shaking the cookies to ensure a uniformly even layer. This method is a cookie artist's trick to quickly flooding a large quantity of cookies (see you later, hand cramps!). You will find your rhythm as you dip the cookies; Anita was able to dip over one dozen in just five minutes. Shaking the cookies and gently tapping them on a counter or moving the icing around with a scribe will eliminate air bubbles and bumps in your icing. Before committing, be sure to bake a few sacrificial cookies so that you can test and perfect your method.

The Blooms:

Anita created the blooms as royal icing transfers. She piped the petals and leaves using stiff and medium-stiff consistency onto a parchment paper sheet. Royal icing transfers are great method to quickly add details to a cookie. They store for up to 3 weeks at room temperature, so they can be made ahead of time when you have a free moment.

When piping the flowers, you'll find that you may want to use the same color and consistency for different petal types and designs. Using couplers to switch out your piping tips will save time and piping bags so that you can create these designs efficiently.

Apply color theory principles to achieve more natural bloom hues. Use colors that are complementary to each other and play around with hues to create depth. Our friends at The Cookie Countess have a great article on color theory and cookie decorating.

Advice:

Have fun with it! These designs are complicated, and ever-so-detailed. Practice makes perfect when creating intricate royal icing transfers, and your first few tries may result in a lot of rejects. Anita says, "Piping flowers did not come easy to me initially, since my hands have been trained to do dentistry for 20+ years. Retraining my hands, practice, practice, practice, learning, understanding, and appreciating all the various paradigms for confection designs, lots of online tutorials, and some one-on-one masterclasses have helped me find my own style of piping blooms. And, I really enjoy it and have fun with it." Invest in yourself and your art through practice, tutorials, and learning opportunities. The results will be worth it. Be sure to take photos of those first designs--it will be a great way to benchmark how far you've come in your cookie decorating journey.

Anita offers one last piece of advice, "In the end, that's the best piece of advice I can give--explore, imagine, have fun & enjoy! Your work of HE(ART) will always speak volumes to this."