Creative Cookie Decorating for Everyone: Buttercream Frosting Recipes, Designs, and Tips for Every Occasion

By Emily Hutchinson, Johannah Chadwick and Johanna Martinson

Create showstopping cookies that taste as good as they look! A collection that includes something for everyone, no matter the occasion or season.  

In Creative Cookie Decorating for Everyone, the follow-up to the beloved Creative Cookie Decorating, Emily Hutchinson takes you through decorating with buttercream, with hundreds of step-by-step photos. She covers each season and holiday with new ideas and designs for your cookies.

Unique to this book are instructions for how to flood with buttercream. (Yes, you read that right, you can flood with buttercream!) Emily shares twice as many (new!) delicious recipes while also including allergy-conscious cookies that everyone can enjoy. These recipes have been tested and perfected, so they are ready for the spotlight! 

Emily's main goal is to teach you all her tips and tricks, which have taken her years to learn, and help you develop or fine-tune your decorating skills, no matter your background experience in the kitchen. Emily loves to see bakers succeed, and this book is sure to help you take your cookies to the next level.  

Emily, the creator of The Hutch Oven, has built a brand around creative ways to decorate beautiful and achievable buttercream-frosted cookie designs with trusted recipes. She passionately shares her gift of baking, along with her inspiring journey after her daughter passed away from SIDS in 2008. Her heartfelt stories will leave you full of hope and the feel of a warm embrace as you soak up valuable cookie knowledge. Emily is real and relatable, and it's like you're baking right alongside her. Creative Cookie Decorating for Everyone is as much about finding joy and peace in the kitchen as it is connecting with people while baking.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Books
• Release date: Oct 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781680997200

Emily Hutchinson

Emily Hutchinson is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a registered Practitioner Psychologist. In 2004, she was featured as one of Britain’s 10 leading Occupational Psychologists by the Independent on Sunday. Since 2006 she has had her own business and works in long-term partnerships with a number of technical organzsations, providing thought leadership and practical interventions. She was one of the early adopters of the Positive Psychology and strengths approach and has been applying that approach with organizations for many years. She was shortlisted as Champion of the Year for Women in Nuclear 2019, for founding the Corporate Women’s Coaching Club (based on a strengths approach). Emily is an Associate Lecturer with the University of the West of England, and is working with Oxford Brookes University to support the development of an innovative and forward-looking undergraduate programme in the Business Psychology arena She is also Associate Editor (books) for The Psychologist, the monthly magazine for Psychologists. She has had several book reviews and articles published.

Book preview

Filling Your Piping Bag

I’ve included even the simplest tasks with photos and instructions to help!

From the kitchen

Batch of buttercream

From the drawer

Piping bags

Coupler

Tip

Scissors

Clear plastic wrap optional (Two-Toned Buttercream instructions)

Instructions

1. Cut your piping bag about 1 inch up from the tip.

2. Drop your coupler inside the bag.

3. Attach piping tip to plastic coupler on the outside and fill the bag with ½ to 1 cup of buttercream.

MASTER TIP

Don’t overfill your buttercream. It warms up quickly in your hand and your flowers will get droopy. It’s easier to pipe and guide your hand with less in your bag. Keep refilling for the best results.

Parchment Method

This method is very simple and effective. All you will need is parchment and a spatula, you could also use a butter knife if you don’t have an offset spatula.

From the kitchen

Batch of buttercream

Cookies

From the drawer

Tip 10

Angled offset spatula

Parchment paper

Instructions

1. Pipe buttercream on a cookie using tip 10 and let crust for 10 minutes.

2. Use spatula to smooth the surface.

3. Place a small piece of parchment paper over the frosted cookie and gently smooth the surface. Let crust for 15 minutes.

4. Pull away parchment paper to reveal a smooth surface. Place parchment back on and re-smooth if the surface has any imperfections.

MASTER TIP

Use this on any surface to get a smooth top. It’s so simple and effective. Cut a piece of parchment a little bigger than your cookie. Too big of sheet can crumple. Don’t let the parchment bunch.

Flooding with Buttercream

I tried experimenting with flooding buttercream about seven years ago. It was undocumented so it’s almost like it never happened, but what I learned then helps us now. I loved the smooth look, but it took a few extra steps, which seemed a little overwhelming.

I wanted to introduce this technique because it’s such a beautiful look that is very popular; it looks like royal icing but tastes soft and delicious like buttercream. This is technical, and it’s not easy. You will make a handful of mistakes in your own kitchen before you get the consistency that’s right for you. Each day has been different for me, but I always start out with the same recipe and then add more heavy cream as needed. Temperature outside and the warmth of your kitchen can determine how much cream you’ll need. Heating in very short, small bursts and then stirring is crucial to getting the flood consistency right. I heat in the microwave for 4- to 5- second increments. If you overheat, the butter will melt and separate, and the buttercream will also run right off the cookie. If you don’t heat it enough, you won’t get a flat, smooth surface. It’s tricky, but you can do it.

A few decorators online only use flooding buttercream. I’m always so impressed with the patience and time it takes to do it. This is not for the faint of heart.

I have found that heavy cream makes a thicker and flatter surface with fewer ripples. Milk is better for buttercream you aren’t flooding with. Add a little at a time, by the teaspoon.

From the kitchen

Batch of buttercream for flooding

Heavy cream

From the drawer

Food coloring gel

Scribe or toothpick

Squeeze bottle with tip 2 attached or tipless piping bags

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, add 1 cup of flooding buttercream. Add in a few drops of desired food coloring and mix. With a spatula, stir until desired color is reached.

2. Pour ½ cup into a tipless piping bag and cover the bowl with the remaining buttercream with plastic wrap. A crust will form. Tie a knot in the end of the piping bag to prevent any air coming in or buttercream drizzling out.

3. Snip a tiny hole at the end of the piping bag and outline the cookie. Quickly fill in with a steady back and forth stream of buttercream. If using a thicker piping consistency around the edge to act as a dam for flooding the buttercream, you will require a separate bag and a little thicker or cooler buttercream so it stands up to the warmer buttercream.

4. Use a scribe or a toothpick to go around the cookie and get out any bumps. Use short swirling motions all the way around.

MASTER TIP

This technique is challenging. You must also work in stages because the buttercream cools quickly. You can keep a warmer or a heating pad nearby to make sure the buttercream doesn’t cool between piping. If using a squeeze bottle, a crust will start to form on top of the flood-consistency buttercream the more you reheat it. If storing the buttercream, make sure it’s in an airtight container.

Dip Method

I love this dip method because it’s so simple and easy enough for anyone to do. My kids love this method because they feel very accomplished with just a dip of the cookie. Dazzle them up with sprinkles or let them dry and pipe buttercream on top.

From the kitchen

Flood-consistency buttercream

From the drawer

Bowl

Food coloring gel

Knife or toothpick

Cooling rack

Parchment paper

Instructions

1. Fill a bowl with 1 to 2 cups of flood-consistency buttercream, and add in three drops of gel food coloring.

2. Take a knife, skewer, or toothpick and make swirls on the surface. Don’t mix. The swirls add a marbled color. You can do one solid color if your intention isn’t to marble the cookie.