How To Decorate Cookies With Flooded Icing And Paint Like A Pro

Flooding and painting cookies is so much fun and easy once you know the basic technique. It means you can take your cookies to another level, decorating them with a smooth runny icing that dries hard enough to paint. Great for customising cookies for special occasions or for family and friends as home-baked gifts!

You will need:

Equipment
Wilton Christmas multi-cookie cutter sheet
Wilton non-stick large baking tray
Paint brush and paint palette
Cocktail stick
Kitchen paper
Rolling pin
Wilton disposable bags
Wilton No 2 piping tube
Wilton piping bag ties, pack of 12

Edibles
Sattina vanilla biscuit mix
Sattina ready to use royal icing
Selection of Wilton paste food colourings – we used brown, lemon yellow, sky blue, leaf green, rose & orange
Sugarflair white edible tint powder colour
Sprinkling of flour to roll cookies out on

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Step 1. The Baking

For this tutorial we used the Sattina vanilla biscuit mix – simply follow the instructions on the tub adding water and a little butter.

Handy tips

• Use the butter straight from the fridge and simply grate it straight into the biscuit mix
• After mixing, wrap the biscuit mix in cling film and pop in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling out the dough, this will make it easier to cut out and lift the shapes onto the baking tray

Step 2. Outlining Shapes Ready For Flooding

For outlining and flooding cookies, always use royal icing. This is an icing made with powdered egg white, icing sugar and water which you can make yourself or buy ready-made in a tub (such as Sattina ready to use royal icing). The idea behind the technique is to pipe an outline around different areas of the cookie first, then flood (fill) in with the same coloured runny icing.

The consistency of the icing for outlining should be ‘soft peak’ which means it should be soft but still keep its shape and doesn’t spread when piped in a line (see tips below). Colour the icing as desired and half fill a piping bag fitted with a no. 2 tube.

To start piping, touch down on the cookie applying pressure to the bag then continue to pipe the outline, holding the bag about 1cm above the cookie so that the icing flows freely without breaking. Finish by touching down again and stopping all pressure. It is a good idea to practise piping on your worktop before moving onto your cookie and if you are not happy with your outlining on the cookie, simply scrape it off with a palette knife and start again!

Handy tips

• To check the icing is the correct ‘soft peak’ consistency, scoop some up on the end of a knife and the tip of the icing should bend. If it is too stiff, mix in a couple of drops of water
• Piping can get a little messy so we love the Wilton icing bag ties! They are small rubber bands with a clever catch which simply lock around the piping bag to stop the icing from oozing out!

Step 3. Flooding In Your Cookie With Runny Icing

To flood the outlined area on your cookie you need to make the icing runny by stirring in a little water, literally drop by drop at a time – it is the right consistency when it takes 8-10 seconds to level out after stirring. Pour the runny icing into a piping bag and snip a tiny hole in the bottom.

Start piping around the outside, working your way into the middle until the area is completely flooded. Be careful not to overfill the area and if you see any air bubbles forming, pop them with a cocktail stick.

Continue to outline and flood the rest of the cookie, leaving about 5 minutes between each colour to dry. If you place the cookie under a desk top light, it not only dries quicker but dries extra shiny!

Finally, leave the iced cookie overnight to completely dry ready for painting.

Step 4. Painting Your Cookie

To paint the cookie, we used Wilton paste food colours diluted with a few drops of water. We also added a tiny amount of white powder food colouring to help with shading etc. It is handy to have a paint palette to mix the colours in and remember you can always add more colour but can’t take it away so take your time painting!

Do not dilute the colours too much otherwise they may run into each other or even worse, the flooded icing may cave in. Practice makes perfect so try out your designs on paper first!

Handy Tip
If you are not confident at painting, search the internet for ideas, designs and colours so that you have something to follow

Step 5. Finishing Touches

Once your painted cookies are dry, you can add extra details with piped dots and patterns,

use edible ink pens to add personal messages

or spritz with edible glitter to add a touch of sparkle!

We love seeing what you have all been up to so please don’t forget to share your cakes and bakes with us on social media.

Happy Baking!