easter egg tutorial

The first time I made cookies for Nate, he remarked, “it’s amazing what you can do with lines and dots!” It’s true. With the right colors and designs, easy techniques can have a powerful impact.

Here’s a brief tutorial for how I use “lines and dots” to make cool designs, like the ones seen here.

STEP 1: Make the icing. For these cookies I used 10 count royal icing. You will know that your icing has reached the right consistency when you run a knife through your mixing bowl and it takes around 10 seconds for the line to disappear.

Step 2: Pipe parallel lines. Using a #1.5 round tip, pipe the first line. Place your tip at one end of the cookie. Applying even pressure, lift up and carry the line straight across. The line will keep itself straight as long as you work quickly and apply even pressure.

The rest of the lines are more challenging, because you need to keep them parallel. You can do this by measuring out the lines first, but with a little practice, it’s fairly easy to eyeball it.

STEP 3: Pipe perpendicular lines. They do not have to be perfectly perpendicular, but it is important to keep the lines parallel to one another.

STEP 4: Add “teardrops.” Add teardrops off the lines, evenly spacing them. You can make these closer together for a more ornate appearance, or spread them farther apart if you prefer that they look more like vines. The easiest way to pipe these is to place dots along the lines. While the dot is still wet, drag a toothpick back toward the line. If you are more practiced, piping these teardrops is easy and requires only a change in the pressure you are applying to the piping bag.