How to Decorate a Ballet Pointe Shoe Cookie

When making dozens of the same cookie favor, it's smart to keep the details balanced. This helps to keep the fun in decorating, but also results in a beautiful cookie favor.

Take these ballet slipper cookies for example. 

I love to pair an easy technique like stenciling with more time-consuming details like roses and scrolls. This creates a beautiful cookie favor, all while keeping the project manageable!  Watch this video and learn how to make a pretty ballet slipper favor.

Are you new to decorating? Click here to check out our 'getting started' tutorials for videos on how to make royal icing, piping and flooding, and rolling and baking. Recipes are included in the videos!

See my notes below for successful stenciling on a cookie!

The supplies featured in this video are the ballet slipper stencil, the new LilaLoa plaque, the icing scraper, the flower nail, and tip #101.

A couple notes about making those pretty little flowers. I had to make 216 of those little roses (with the flower nail and tip #101). It took me about and 1 1/2 hours to make them. Then I let them dry overnight before peeling them off the parchment square. I stored the leftovers in a little tupperware so I have them all ready to go the next time I want to add a pretty flower to a cookie.

Here are a few tips for good results when stenciling with royal icing:

1. Use STIFF Icing. This is the icing that comes straight out of the mixer! The icing will hold the shape and won't ooze or smudge into areas it shouldn't be.

2. Gently spread icing with spatula to cover stencil.  I like to allow the base icing layer on the cookies to dry 4-6 hours so I don't poke my finger into the surface of the cookie. I don't push too hard when spreading the icing because I don't want to squish the icing under the stencil.

3. Scrape off excess icing, but don't scrape it clean! So, when you are removing the excess, gently run your spatula or scraper over the stencil. I reuse stencils at least 6-12 times (sometimes more!) before I need to wash and dry the excess icing. If icing gets on the underside of the stencil you'll need to clean that before doing the next cookie.

4. Carefully pull up stencil. Don't wiggle the stencil or it will smudge your image.

5. If there is excess icing on the edges, clean up it up with a scribe, toothpick or fix-it stick.

Looking for more ballet cookie fun? Check out the video tutorial to make this pretty Tutu cookie!

You can learn more about the details of the Tutu cookie on this blog post - click here!

Happy Decorating!!

Anne