White & Gold Pumpkin - Vine Edition

Are you ready for all things Fall?! Why not start off with a sweet treat? You can always get the holiday season off to a jump start with gifting decorated cookies. With the current world situation, you can always have a virtual baking session with your friends. So, Facetime your gals, grab your PSL and get started!

Materials Needed:

~ Baked pumpkin shaped sugar cookies

~ Royal Icing

~ Brown gel food coloring

~ Edible gold luster dust

~ Food safe paint brush

~ Scribe

~ Round piping tip

~ Piping bags

~ Piping coupler

For this simple design, you only need one color - brown. Begin with mixing a small amount of brown medium consistency royal icing. Next, the white royal icing into a medium consistency. The amount really depends on how many cookies you're decorating but you can always mix more! Put the mixed royal icing into separate piping bags with couplers and make sure to use round piping tips.

Step 1

Make sure your cookie is completely cool before decorating.

Step 2

Using the white royal icing, pipe the outer left, outer right, and middle parts of the pumpkin. You can use your scribe to lightly scratch lines to help guide where to place the icing. Let sit for about 10-15 minutes.

Step 3

Fill in the rest of the pumpkin with the white royal icing. Let sit for 10-15 minutes.

Step 4

Using the brown icing, pipe in the stem. Allow to dry until all the icing begins to harden.

Step 5

Using the white icing, pipe some squiggly lines starting from the top of the pumpkin and flowing down. Allow the cookie to completely dry. I usually let it sit overnight to ensure that the cookie is completely dry before adding onto the design.

Step 6

Mix a small amount of lemon extract (others have used vodka - don't worry, the alcohol will evaporate! It's the best to use since the liquid evaporates almost instantly and doesn't end up ruining the icing.) with the gold luster dust. Using a food safe brush, paint the gold mixture onto the vines. Allow to dry.

How cute and simple!

If you want a more difficult design, follow this next step! For some extra flair, pipe some rosettes and roses onto small parchment paper. I chose to use the gel colors burgundy, orange, and purple. Use any color flowers you'd like! Allow an hour for the small decorations to dry.

Next, once the additional designs are dry, add them onto the top of the pumpkin. Pipe a small amount of icing on the bottom of each flower to attach to the ribbon. You'll end up with a beautifully decorated pumpkin.