Cookie scraps and sprinkles were tossed throughout the kitchen as the dog scurried to pick up every last crumb.
Cookie decorating can become very competitive depending on who is involved. I competed with juniors Kate Boyce, Adriana Crabtree, and Jamie Vandergriff to see who was most skilled in decorating Christmas cookies.
There are many different categories to judge cookie decorating: creativity, professionalism, funniest, most festive, etc. Most people tend to stick with the typical Christmas designs like a Christmas tree, a wreath, or a snowflake which are all great designs; however, they may seem basic. Crabtree added her unique twist to simple Christmas designs by changing the color schemes from red and green to a variety of colors like pink, red, blue, and white.
Another way to add more creativity is to incorporate movies into cookie designs. Inspiration can be found anywhere on Pinterest, but watching classic Christmas movies could inspire some fun ideas. Iconic movies include Elf, Home Alone, A Christmas Story, Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, and more.
Our contest was judged on creativity, Christmas spirit, funniest, and prettiest. Vandergriff and Boyce both were excellent at making cookies look beautiful. They used pearls sprinkles, colorful icing, and professional frosting tools to make an elegant cookie that also tasted delicious. I, however, created more interesting cookies. They were voted as the funniest cookies because of my unique character designs and different uses of icing.
An easy way to ruin cookie decorating is to have crumbling cookies. The base of the decoration is just as important as the decorating. We used the Pilsbury sugar cookie ready to bake dough. This set us up for success by creating perfectly rounded cookies with a flat top. We baked our cookies and allowed them to cool for 20 minutes before adding icing to avoid it melting.
The perfect circle shape we had for a base was not enough for Crabtree. She decided to take things to a new level by attempting to shape the cookies after they were baked. Her goal was to cut a Santa hat out of a cookie to glue on the top of another cookie with icing to create a large Santa. Her attempt to cut the cookie was successful but not clean. Crumbs spilled everywhere. A crumbly cookie mess was made; however, she accomplished her goal of shaping a hat, and, surprisingly, it stuck nicely to another cookie simply with icing.
Overall, the competition was a success. If judging were based on preciseness or elegance, Vandergriff and Boyce would be the clear winners. If creativity was the only aspect considered, Crabtree and I would be crowned. The baking process and decorating was fairly clean, aside from Crabtree’s mess.
The final winner was declared by judges Beth and Steve Boyce, and miraculously Crabtree pulled out a win. She was rewarded with an entire tube of cookie dough; only half made it home.
