My Very First Set of Decorated Cookies

Welcome to amateur hour! Haha kinda. I've been baking sugar cookies for many years already so that's nothing new. I'm pretty happy with my core recipe and I plan to expand on flavors but I'm getting ahead. Mostly because I'm writing this from the future so that's probably going to happen but lets keep it to a minimum. 
Anyway.
I decided to take it to the next level. This is my first set of decorated cookies. I learned a lot from this set. It's pretty rough but not bad for a beginner. My icing consistencies were off a bit but that just takes time and it's good to see where you've come from.

As far as process goes I went a little crazy with these especially since they were the first set I was making as a gift I wanted them to be cool. Some things I will still do again but a few things I won't.
For instance I'm not a big fan of the 3D cookies. They are cool to look at but I think even with the progress I've made they're just not my thing. 
Maybe that will change but they were difficult to decorate and I lost a lot of definition. Granted I could probably work on the definiton (by chilling the dough and sending them straight to the oven) but it's still not ideal for decorating as far as my skills go. 
Here's a few examples.
I did like the little cars they came out pretty good, but I was not a fan of the trophys at all. 

So I'm sure you've noticed that the one on the right is blue and there aren't any pictures of the cars in the photo on the left. 
These were really hard to decorate. I lost a lot of definition as I mentioned. So I decided to to do them over and color the dough instead. I do this pretty regularly for Christmas sugar cookies. If I make red and green cookies then I can just make white and black icing and be good to go. 
Plus colored cookies are cute AF. 
Using food coloring in my dough is definitely something I will continue to do. 
Especially for holidays like Valentines--- or Halloween is fun I've made black and orange cookies in the past it's a good time.
If you haven't done that you definitely should. 

Here's some more photos of the process.
A lot of it is waiting on icing to dry so you can add the next layer without the icing just glooping all into each other. 
My icing was a tadddd thin and I was still using ziploc bags at this time so this was hardcore beginner mode.

Welp that's it for these!
I didn't get very many pictures at the time because I was still unsure if this was something I was going to pursue but I definitely enjoyed it!
I think they looked pretty cute bagged and boxed up!! These were for my dad who definitely enjoyed them and still asks for cookies on the regular.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my humble beginnings as a ... cookie artist?
​I think that's what I'm gonna go with. 
Thanks for stopping by!
Much Love
​Amanda


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