Marbled Christmas Bauble Cookies

It was love at first sight. That's how my relationship with royal icing began.
The December 2011 issue of Good Housekeeping Magazine featured a platter of beautifully decorated  Christmas ornament cookies that had me spellbound. I had to figure out how to replicate them.
I didn't even know what I was searching for at first, but I finally found marbled royal icing tutorials through Google. And that, as they say, was that!

The background in the photograph above is the page from Good Housekeeping Magazine from November 2011 that inspired me. (The cookies in the magazine were by the incredibly talented Roxanne Floquet)

 

So, I thought I'd share a tutorial with you that replicates that first Christmas cookie that captured me:

Using an icing bag fitted with a size 1 or 2 Ateco tip, outline and flood a bauble shaped cookie with white flooding consistency royal icing :

Still using flooding consistency royal icing (and a bag fitted with an Ateco 1 or 2 tip), immediately pipe parallel lines of red royal icing across the cookie surface:

Start above the first line of red, and drag the tip of a toothpick through the icing from the top to the bottom of the cookie. Follow the curve of the bauble.

Then, clean the tip of the toothpick and drag it through the icing in the opposite direction: from the bottom of the cookie to the top.

Continue until the whole surface is marbled - remember to follow the curves of the bauble.

Set aside and allow to dry completely - it may take 24 hours - before packaging.

It can get quite addictive!

And if you want to see marbling in action from one of my very favourite cookie decorators - have a look at this video.

Happy marbling!

xxM