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Looking for a festive baking project or a fun activity for Christmas Day? These cookies are very easy to make but they look beautiful and since they’re decorated with creamy buttercream, they taste incredible, too!
I used my 4 Minute Buttercream for these and the recipe is here: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/recipes/buttercream-frosting/
My discount code for 15% off at www.fancysprinkles.com is BRITISHGIRL15
For my online cake decorating school click here:
https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/online-courses
To read a written version of this tutorial (with photos!) click here: http://www.britishgirlbakes.com/easy-christmas-cookies/
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0:00
If you're looking for a festive baking project or a fun activity for Christmas Day
0:04
these cookies are really simple to make but they look beautiful and since they're decorated
0:08
with creamy buttercream they taste incredible too. Start by baking your cookies and making some
0:13
buttercream. I'll talk about my recipes for both and alternatives that will and won't work at the
0:19
end of this video. Let's begin by making a glitzy Christmas tree. Use a piping bag with a small
0:25
round tip and squeeze the buttercream out of the bag, pulling the bag very slowly from
0:29
from one side to the other, and when you get to the edge of the cookie, hold the bag still for a moment to give the buttercream a chance to catch up and curve around and then push your hand very slowly backwards in the opposite direction, piping a line immediately beside the previous line, so you don't see any of the cookie between the lines
0:47
If you don't have a round piping tip, don't worry, I'll show you another way to do this in a second
0:52
Continue zigzagging up the cookie, and if your hands are shaky like mine, it might help to hold your piping wrist with your other hand to steady it
0:59
If your zigzags are starting to lean to one side instead of going straight across the cookie
1:03
you can pipe a half line to build up the side that's lower, and if the line breaks anywhere
1:08
just continue where you left off. By the time the whole tree is covered in lines and the
1:12
decorations we add next you won notice any tiny imperfections As soon as you finish piping while the butter cream is still sticky add some sprinkles A lot of sprinkle mixes come with gold stars which are perfect for the top of the tree and any round sprinkles will look like baubles or ornaments
1:27
I have a discount for these fancy sprinkles, and I've put it in the video description
1:32
Now use some chocolate buttercream or tint your buttercream with brown colouring and use a round tip to pipe the trunk of the tree with zigzags too
1:39
I'm using a slightly bigger round tip, but you can use the same tip as you used for the green
1:43
part of the tree. I'll turn it around so you can see and there it is! If you don't have a small
1:49
round piping tip you can put your buttercream in a Ziploc bag and cut off a small piece from
1:53
one corner and squeeze the buttercream through that. Your piping won't be as neat but it will still
1:58
look nice and I've done one with a Ziploc bag to show you how it looks. Use a leaf tip to
2:03
pipe a Poinsettia on a star-shaped cookie or a flower will work or even just a round
2:08
cookie. Hold the tip so the two drawers are on top of each other and the buttercream comes out the
2:13
sides of the tip. Squeeze the buttercream out and hold your wrist still for a moment to pipe
2:18
the wide base of the petal and then pull the bag away, release your pressure on the bag, and swipe
2:23
the bag away to make the point of the petal. Pipe petals over each point of the star and then
2:28
pipe a second layer piping each petal between two of the previous petals so they fill in the gaps You can add a few more petals in the middle if you like and then press a sprinkle into the middle or a few small sprinkles If you enjoying this tutorial please click the thumbs up button and subscribe to my YouTube channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week
2:47
It's not Christmas without a gingerbread man, but this one is chocolatey. Put some chocolate
2:52
buttercream in a piping bag with a round tip and pipe the outline of your gingerbread man and then
2:56
fill in the middle so that the whole cookie is covered with buttercream. Use an offset's bachelor or
3:01
pallet knife or even a normal knife to smooth the buttercream, scraping from the outside
3:06
towards the middle of the cookies so you don't mess up the outline. You might find this easier
3:11
if you dip your spatula or knife in hot water first, and then dry it, and then smooth the butter
3:16
cream. Switch to some plain white buttercream also in a bag with a small round tip to pipe
3:21
the details, a smiley face, some wiggles around the bases of the arms and the legs, and three
3:27
little buttons, which you can press coloured sprinkles onto if you like
3:31
Pay attention to how high up the eyes and smile are, because if they're too high or too low, your gingerbread man will look a bit like an alien
3:41
Okay, another use for star cookie cutters. You'll need different sizes for this and we'll start with the largest cookie
3:47
Use an open star tip like this number 32 tip to pipe rosettes all over the star starting with the points to line the rosettes up neatly there and working your way in because the middle isn going to be visible at the end so it doesn matter if the rosettes aren as tidy Place the next biggest star on top angling it so that the points are
4:06
sticking out between the points of the star below it. Pipe all over this one too and continue with
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the rest of your stars, getting smaller and smaller as you work your way upwards and piping the
4:16
same rosettes onto each star until you've built a little Christmas tree. You can add sprinkles
4:21
sprinkles if you want to decorate it but I think it looks beautiful just like this I
4:26
use sugar cookies for these but you can use anything that holds its shape when you bake
4:29
like ginger red if you want to use chocolate chip cookies or other cookies that
4:34
expand when they bake so they won't work with cookie cutters you can pipe these
4:37
decorations on top of those even though the cookie isn't the same shape as the decoration
4:41
if you want to decorate cookies but don't want to bake them you can buy cookies and
4:46
pipe the decorations on top of those for the butter cream I recommend using my form
4:50
minute butter cream, which is made with powdered sugar or icing sugar and butter, because it sets
4:55
after an hour or two at room temperature, so although it doesn't get as hard as royal icing
5:00
it won't get damaged when you lift a cookie up. It's also deliciously creamy and has a lovely
5:05
texture to eat with cookies. I hope you try these techniques. Please tag British Girl Bakes in your
5:11
photos on social media so I can see them. Thanks for watching
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