I have *such* a treat for you guys today! This is the very first guest post on Bake at 350 and I am so, so happy to introduce you to Marian. Marian's blog is called Sweetopia and I'm not exaggerating when I say it is a cookie wonderland! I literally cried the first time I saw it. You'll love it, too! {Just WAIT until you see the little owl below!}
Thank you, Marian, for guest posting today! We are so lucky to have you here!
Hi! I'm Marian.
I'm really thrilled and honored to be here as a guest contributor for Bridget's website! Every time I visit I'm inspired by her eye-candy cookies and baked goods of all kinds! Hopefully you'll like the sweets I'm sharing today.
If you've tried cookies like these before you know how simple they are to make, and if you haven't, you're about to find out just how easy they are to create.
It's called marbling or swirling, which is basically when one or more colors of icing are applied to a base coat of icing, and then a toothpick, cake tester, pin or skewer is dragged through the icing to create a marbled or swirly effect.
Each combination of colors creates another look.
Just by changing the way you set up your lines and drag the toothpick, completely different designs emerge.
You can incorporate the swirled icing into your design, like these feathered cookie friends:
If you'd like to try the swirling effect, the most important thing for your success is the consistency of the icing. Bridget has some great points about that here, and my cookie decorating tutorial goes over some tips and the 10-second rule here.
Once you have your cookies baked and icing made, it's time to begin by piping your outline. I like to use a piping bag fitted with a coupler and #2 tip.
Fill or flood your cookie with royal icing right away. You could leave the outline to set to create a solid dam, but you'll be able to see the border when the icing dries.
Once you've filled the whole cookie in, shake it gently left to right on your work surface, to help smooth the icing out.
Add your second (or more), layers or colors of icing. Work as quickly as you can before the icing sets.
Take a toothpick, pin, skewer or dough tester (hey, whatever works!), and drag it through the icing. In this case I drew S-like shapes. The image below shows which direction I dragged the toothpick in.
Finish off the edges with dots or another design of your choice and you're done!
The hearts are made by piping dots and dragging the toothpick through the center of each dot.
Let your cookies dry, package and ribbon.
Simple, easy, fun and impressive!
If you have any questions or comments come visit me over at Sweetopia for more information or to contact me directly.
A big thanks to Bridget, cookie decorator extraordinaire, for having me as her guest blogger!
Happy marbling!
xo,
Marian
Super cute tips, thank you for sharing, I can't wait to use them on my cookies.As always Bridget, your blog is awesome as well as Sweetopia.
ReplyDeleteOh my word. I could not be a bigger fan of this?? Love Marion and love her blog and love that you are showing her off!!
ReplyDeleteReally like this "Guest Post" feature Bridget! Marian, what a great tutorial! From an earlier post of Bridget's I learned the basics and just did some tulip cookies using it and with different colours. The technique for the dots is new information and I really appreciate it. Always a good day when I learn something new. Thank you ladies!
ReplyDeleteLOVE THIS! Those look too pretty to eat :) Thank you for sharing the tips - I'll try them out soon. Almost time to make Easter cookies!
ReplyDeleteThese cookies are beautiful! Thanks so much for the easy tutorial!
ReplyDelete~Liz@HoosierHomemade
so pretty! love it!
ReplyDeleteThey are so pretty! Swweetopia is fantastic, I always love stopping by and being in awe at all the sweets she's made.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great step-by-step that I'm going to share as a link on the Drop In & Decorate web site.
ReplyDeleteque descubrimiento!!preciosas estas galletas decoradas ,y que bien explicado.
ReplyDeletemuchisimas gracias.
adoro decorar galletas.
bss.
You just gave me an idea for how to spend my spring break...these are simply adorable!
ReplyDeleteGreat tutorial! Thanks for sharing. I have some confidence now to give it a try.
ReplyDeleteGreat new feature, Bridget! I love Marian's style and her blog is inspiring... Happy Easter!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing the marbling effect! All of those cookies are adorable, I especially love the heart shapes!
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool! You make it look so easy! Thanks for all the tips! I love the owl cookie, too cute!
ReplyDeleteI loved this guest post! These tips are so useful and will definitely turn an ordinary cookie into something much more extravagant. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI am goad that she shared this. I have always wondered how Marion got that smooth edge on the back flood without letting it dry. Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love guest posting...especially when two of my favorite cookie people are doing the posts.
ReplyDeleteI just made a batch of these yesterday. Made Easter eggs! They are adorable and soooo easy!
ReplyDeleteYou girls are AWESOME!! Thanks for the great post!!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's awesome and she makes it look so easy! They look fantastic! And the owl? So, so cute!
ReplyDeleteI love you both! Now together!?! fantastic! Great tutorial (as always!!!)
ReplyDeleteKim @ http://frostmeblog.blogspot.com
I have always liked both creating marbling effects in icing and seeing it on display, too. It's so pretty! And my heart melted on here when I saw the CUTE owl...and the ducks...and the chickens! OH MY! Perfection - simply put.
ReplyDelete=-D
http://classiclyamber.com/blog/
Beautiful! Love the hearts!
ReplyDeleteI am so in love with this. what a fabulous tutorial making this easy, peasy! I am going to do this and show off the results...wow and dazzle my family at the next get together!
ReplyDeleteLOVE this...thanks so much!
ReplyDeletesuzanne
Thank you for sharing this! Great tutorial - love the detail!
ReplyDeleteSusan
I can see how you might be reduced to tears over these cookies! At first I thought, "how silly!" but then I saw that glittery rainbow teapot... GORGEOUS.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this, but NEVER done it! THANKS so much for the tutorial to help me make a brave attempt at marbling! Appreciate both of you!
ReplyDeleteSo simple and yet so stunning. Nice guest post Marian. Great first guest poster Bridget!
ReplyDeleteWOW AMAZING!!
ReplyDeleteExtremely informative! I love the step by step instructions. I haven't tried to decorate cookies before because they look so intimidating. These are too beautiful to eat. :-D
ReplyDeleteOK I would eat it, but then think of all the time spent.. dang
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this technique! I tried it today and had great success! I had been looking for a long time to find out exactly how to do this particular technique, so I am so happy to now know the "secret" so I can WOW everyone! Thanks SO much!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous!
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful. Definitely works of art. Thanks for the picture tutorial.
ReplyDeleteI just tried this today with some Easter Egg cookies, they are amazing! What a great idea! http://www.squirrelbakes.com/
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great tutorial! I needed it!
ReplyDelete~Ingrid
I LOVE these!!
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAWESOME TUTORIAL!
I REMEMBER OUR VANILLA SLICES (IN AUSTRALIA) HAD THIS SORT OF DECORATION...:-) MANY MANY YEARS AGO.
LOL.
Sophie
I'll just "ditto" everyone else :)
ReplyDeletei love sweetopia and your blog bridget! thanks for the tips Marian!! I'll be sure to use them soon (:
ReplyDeleteSeriously going to check my pantry for ingredients... :) LOVE those HEARTS!!!
ReplyDeletelove this post...love!
ReplyDelete& *heart* you & marian...you both are so very creative!!!
happy holiday to all!
Love this post! Thanks so much for sharing. I'm baking cookies this weekend and can't wait to use some of these tips!
ReplyDeleteHow cute!! And what great instruction and pictures!! I will be trying this for sure, thanks a bunch!!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful. LOVE it!! I'm totally inspired to give that a try! Sweetopia is now bookmarked!
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing! I've been wanting to try this technique for my Easter cookies, and I'm so glad to have step-by-step pictures as a guide. Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteAmazing cookies... They are fabulous. I never thought to use marbling to make feathers. What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteI'd LOVE to try this! but I know I can't make it look sooo great as yours!!!
ReplyDeleteMarian - I LOVE the dots to hearts technique. You are AWESOME!!!!
ReplyDeleteRose
These are lovely!
ReplyDeleteThese are lovely!
ReplyDeletethanks so much for sharing this! these cookies are beautiful!
ReplyDeletelove you new tool bar, I stumbled the post!
ReplyDeleteOMGoodness!!!!!
ReplyDeleteOMGoodness!!!!!!
That is tooo coooool!
ANd that owl up there...on that cookie...OMG!
If I could create that...my life would be complete!
xxooxx
What talented ladies you are!
Perfection indeed!
Bridget!
ReplyDeleteGoing to browse around and see how cute you have decorated spring bunnies or flowers and I may have to copy your design for spring cookies for my sweet mom. Going to search for cuteness NOW!!!
xo
Okay....30 seconds later!
ReplyDeleteFound what I needed!
It doesn't take long to find CUTENESS over here! ;o)
xxooxx
Love Sweetopia. Love Bake at 350. Yay for your both!
ReplyDeleteOh happy day! Yippeeee!! I'm on Bridget's Bake at 350's blog!! I'm sooo happy to be here - thank you - it's a true honor!!
ReplyDeleteThank you also for such a kind introduction!
These look fabulous. I shall have to experiment some more with icing cookies and see if I can get anything which looks anything near as good as yours :)
ReplyDeleteWOW!!!!!!!!!! I'm quickly becoming addicted to all these tips and pictures! can't wait to try them!!! :)
ReplyDeleteWow - almost.. too pretty to eat.
ReplyDeleteI discovered your blog this week and I couldn't wait to make some cookies with marbling. I followed your directions and the cookies are gorgeous! I have one question about tip size. Just wondering what size of tip you used for the horizonal lines (the ones that get marbled) and how that differs/compares to the tip size you used to pipe the outline (I used tip#3 for both). I'm also wondering what size tip you used for the little pearls/dots you put around the perimeter of the whole cookie.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your great tips!
Anne
A BIG question...no, I mean a BAG question. Do you buy all different sizes of celophane bags or do you mostly buy one size? I always seem to run out so I should buy larger amounts.
ReplyDeleteWhat does your stash look like? Thanks......great post, thanks.
This website has very good content. Thank you for the great article I did enjoyed reading it, I will be sure to bookmark your blog and definitely will come back from again
ReplyDelete