Easy Swirl Sparkle Cookie Tutorial

Remember those cookies that Jack put his name on?
The swirly sparkly ones?

Here's how I made them, and how your munchkin can help you!

Start with a plain cookie. These have been flooded with white royal icing and dried overnight. Although I've never tried it,  I'm sure this would work the same on fondant, or even a plain cookie!

Cover your work area with parchment or wax paper and gather your supplies.

You'll need cookies, sanding sugar in the color of your choice, and matching royal icing.

I used red 20-second icing (a line drawn through a bowl of this icing with a knife will disappear in 20 seconds), in a piping bag with a #4 tip.

But...the consistency isn't crucial.  

Something between piping and flood is great.

Wilton even sells pre-made cookie icing in a squeeze bottle that would be good for this project.

The tip isn't very important either.  

The icing could be in a disposable piping bag, or even a ziploc.

Just snip about an 1/4 of an inch off of a corner and you're ready to go!

Start from the outside edge and pipe a shrinking spiral, ending in the middle.

The first revolution should follow the outside edge until it almost meets the beginning.

Here's the kids' part!

Dump sugar over the whole thing!

Not sure you covered it all?

Dump a little more on!

Carefully pick up the cookie and knock excess sugar back into the sugar bowl.

You did it!

Hopefully you and the munchkin did it together!!!

Something about seeing all those sparkles stuck exactly where they should be 

is a HUGE feeling of accomplishment.

Not to mention the thrill of dumping sugar all over anything!

 Now, there will be some extra sugar on the parchment.

Which leads to the other best part.....

watching all the sugar pour back into the bowl!

Just pick up and pour!

And start the whole process again!

These are simple and quick, but also charming and sweet. Perfect for kids with short little attention spans  who might not be able to handle a piping bag yet.

I've had a couple of questions about the font on this 'Merry Christmas' plaque as well. It's De Flandre!

Happy Baking!