These are some wonderful handy tools that make decorating more enjoyable as well as more convenient.
Brushes
Have a variety of sizes of brushes on hand for cookie decorating. Keep brushes
intended for food use separate from other paint brushes.
Concentrated Flavors and Oils
Add a touch of flavor without effecting the consistency of your dough or icing.
Add flavor by the drops, as these are much stronger than extracts.
Coupler and Tips
Couplers fit into your pastry bag and enable you to change most decorating tips
without preparing a new pasty bag. Standard size, angled (used for hard to
reach spots), and large (used for larger tips) are available.
Decorating Tips
There are hundreds of tips available to achieve different looks for piped icings.
Dragees
Dragees are gold and silver little balls used as sprinkles. The Food and Drug administrations
advises using them as decoration only.
Edible Glitter
Edible glitter adds a shimmery, textured touch to any cookie. The glitter needs
to be sprinkled on while the icing is wet, or spread piping gel on dry icing, and
sprinkle the glitter on top. Available in gold, silver, white (great for snow!),
plus many colors.
Food Color Pens
Use food color pens as you would ordinary pens to add fun and dazzling color to your cookies.
These pens are filled with food color, making the ink edible. Draw, color, outline or write
on most icings which form a crust.
Food Color
Food color is available in four concentrated forms: liquid, paste, gel and powder.
I prefer paste, gel or powder. Liquid color is not as concentrated and will take
much more to achieve a bright color, and it may effect the consistency of the icing.
Luster Dust and Petal Dust
These dusts come in a variety of colors. In the dry form, use them
for subtle color. The dusts may be mixed with alcohol (white spirits) or lemon oil
for painting. Add just enough alcohol or lemon oil to achieve a paint consistency.
Luster dusts produce a shimmery, sheen finish and are available in several colors
including shades of metallic gold and silver. Petal Dusts are used to achieve deeper
hues with a matte finish. Simply use a food brush to decorate any icing that is
dry.
Mini Decorations
Edible sugar pieces in a variety of sizes and themes. Simply ice a cookie and place
one sugar decoration for a quick decorated cookie.
Paint Tray
An inexpensive paint tray is ideal for filling with food color and water to create
an edible “watercolor” paint for accenting cookie icings.
Pastry Bag
Pastry Bags are available in many sizes. I prefer a 10″ or 12″ lightweight bag for
easy handling. Also available are disposable pastry bags which are inexpensive and
great for easy cleanup.
Parchment Cone
Parchment cut in a triangle allows you to create your own disposable pastry bag.
Quilting Tool
This tool is used to give a quilt-like finish to fondant covered pieces as
well as a variety of uses when hand molding.
Angled Spatula
Stainless steel icing spatulas are wonderful for icing cookies. Available in straight,
angled or tapered.
Sprinkles
There are so many sprinkle choices now to add special decorations to cookies: hearts,
lips, bears, flowers, Halloween bats, pumpkins, Christmas trees, and more. Also
available are traditional jimmies, dragees, non-pareils, sanding and coarse sugars.
Cookie Decorating 