How to Decorate a Christmas Tree Sugar Cookie

Directions

• 1

  Bake and cool cookies before decorating. Get Ann Clark's no-fail sugar cookie recipe here. Or, spice things up a bit with Ann's signature Gingerbread Cookie recipe. Make sure cookies are fully cooled. If they are warm, the icing will run off of them. Make royal icing. Learn how to mix different consistencies of royal icing here>>
  
  Prepare the following icing colors:
  
  Detail Consistency:
  Light Green (Mix green food coloring & white food coloring together in your royal icing to achieve a softer green)
  Dark Green (Add a drop of black food coloring to your green royal icing to get a darker shade of green)
  Brown
  Yellow Red
  
  Flood Consistency:
  
  Light Green
  Dark Green

  
• 2Using the light green detail consistency icing, outline the outside of the cookie. Do not outline the trunk, only outline the main part of the tree.
  
• 3

  Follow with individual sections, as shown. Pipe a horizontal line of light green detail consistency icing between each tier of branching. You should have seven sections. It helps to give the tree a bit more interest if you pipe these sections in a gentle chevron shape, as shown.
  
  Pipe squiggles of green detail consistency icing in the center of the top section, then alternate every other section, finishing with the bottom section of the tree.
  
  Pro Tip: Small sections of flood icing on a cookie are prone to cratering, or holes/sinking, that can often occur when flood icing is drying. Adding the squiggles of outline consistency icing helps "hold up" the flood here and is a good practice to do when flooding small sections of a cookie.

  
• 4Using the light green flood consistency icing, fill in the sections you just added squiggles to. Use your scribe tool or toothpick to smooth out any uneven spots and pop any air bubbles. Let these sections dry for 15-30 minutes, or until crusted over, before moving onto the next step. Drying your cookies under a fan will help to speed up this step.
  
• 5Using the dark green detail consistency icing, pipe squiggles in the center of each section that is empty.
  
• 6Fill in these small sections with dark green flood consistency icing and smooth out as needed with your scribe tool or toothpick, coaxing out any air bubbles and ensuring full coverage of the cookie.
  
• 7Using the brown outline consistency icing, pipe and fill in the tree stump. Use your scribe tool or toothpick to smooth out the icing. Let the cookie dry for 15-30 minutes before moving onto the next step. The two green sections of the tree should be just crusted over.
• 8

  Using the yellow detail consistency icing, pipe dots scattered all over the tree. Leave room for the red dots.
  
  You can also use sprinkles at this step--we recommend large sugar pearls to go with this fun design.

  
• 9

  Using the red detail consistency icing, pipe dots scattered all over the tree. These simple and sweet Christmas Tree cookies are a joy to decorate. The two color tones add some depth to the design, and you can decorate and embellish as desired.