Cookie Decorating With Kids

Every year at Christmas time we decorate cookies – lots and lots of cookies. Over the years, I have developed a system that really works for us. Planning ahead and creating a system is the only way I keep my sanity while having fun with the kiddos. I know for many the thought of frosting and sprinkles can really make you run the other way. My gift to you is a list of tips and tricks in effort to spread good cheer and sprinkles.

Plan ahead. Seriously, I make the cookies at least a day or two before we decorate.

Use squeeze bottles for the cookie icing. There is way less mess with squeeze bottles. I used to have bowls and knives and then spent a week chiseling dried icing off the chairs, tables, counters, walls, and everything else little hands like to touch.

Prep the icing the night before.

So here is the ‘recipe/ratio’ I use for my cookie icing. 1 cup powdered sugar sifted; 1 tbsp. light corn syrup; 1 tbsp. milk; ½ tsp. vanilla or almond extract; 1/8 tsp. lemon juice. Mix it all together with a fork and then pour into the bottles. I love this icing because you can add more liquid or more sugar until you get the consistency you want without worrying about over mixing or anything. I even omit the vanilla when I have vanilla flavored corn syrup. Now for kid cookie decorating, I try to keep them all the same consistency that will work for both outlining and filling in the cookies. To know what that is means understanding icing consistency. Well, let’s see, to outline you want something like a toothpaste consistency and to fill/flood in you want a thick syrup (like corn syrup) so you want to try to get something in between. Sugarbelle calls it 20 second icing and I think that sums it up perfectly. If you are going to tint your icing, you will want to do that before you put it in the bottles. I like to use gels (Betty Crocker makes a nice gel color for those who don’t want to buy the expensive gels.) I put in some of the color I want a few drops at time and stir well. Once it is mixed, I carefully pour it into a bottle. (funnels work great here) I always like to make my icing the night before because you will find that the color darkens overnight. Then you can decide if you need it darker or lighter the next day.

Set out sprinkles, sugars or whatever else you want as toppings. If they are not in shaking containers, put them into little bowls with spoons. Crushed candy canes during Christmas time are a great addition to the decorating table.

Set up stations. So what I like to do is give each kid a square of butcher paper and square of wax paper. They put the cookie on the wax paper and when they use the sprinkles they can put the extras into a little cup or something so you don’t waste the sprinkles and the mess on the floor is minimal.

I hand out the cookies to the kids so they know how many and of what shape beforehand. Then they get to go to town.

When they are done, we let them dry overnight before putting them in a container. But I always let them eat one before the icing is dry.

I hope some of these ideas help you create a system that works for you while decorating with your kids. And if you haven’t decorated cookies with your kids I hope this post shows you that it isn’t that hard and it is a great way to spend the afternoon.