Lingerie Cookies

For the Blushing Bride

(Used in this project: Heart-Shaped Labels in Soft Hearts style, Large Labels in Lace style, and Large Square Glassine Envelopes.)

I first saw this idea on Pinterest, and from numerous sites— however, since my bout with Royal Icing for the Apple Cookies, I knew I had the foundation for creating these cookies without much instruction. All I needed was a heart-shaped cookie cutter and a lot of practice. These cookies are so pretty for my friend Melody’s bachelorette party!

At first, I thought it would be necessary to use an icing bag, and icing tips, but I’m happy to tell you that with little practice you can manipulate a few ziplocks to do just what I did. The trick is to remember that your outline goes on second, and that you can be creative with matching pairs. Use your favorite sugar cookie or shortbread recipe, cut out an even amount of hearts— one for the top and one for the bottoms.

Royal Icing Ingredients

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons meringue powder
• A small bowl of lukewarm water
• 1 teaspoon flavor
• Food coloring

Follow the same principles I used previously in order to flood the cookies. Take small portions into a separate cup, add your food coloring to desired color, then add half-teaspoon increments of water at a time in order to achieve the consistency that melts back into the mix between 5 and 10 seconds. Load the mix into a ziplock bag and cut the tip at largest an 1/8 of an inch. Flood by piping the cookies first, then fill in the blanks by moving a toothpick in shallow circles to join the lines. I enjoyed trying the “wet on wet” technique by mixing two different colors, flooding one color on, then dotting the second color, in order to melt into seamless polka dots. Allow this stage to dry for at least two hours.

The detailed, frilly, lacey piping is so simple! Portion off a small amount, and add coloring if you like, but do not add additional water. Prep as many colors in as many ziplock bags as you like. Bags that can stay closed work best in between mixing (like ziplock) because this version of royal icing hardens very fast. Also, this lends to cutting the tip of your detail bag very small, and going slowly. The thickness is nice to work with, because once you get the hang of it you’ll be able to hover ahead of the piping line, slightly, in order to create a very smooth line. Experiment with lines both on top of the flooded color, and extending from them.

Absolutely the hardest part of these cookies was deciding on the designs, and I can tell you from experience that even though you think one set is not your best (like the first set), there will be someone that appreciates it, it may even be their favorite.

I wrapped each boudoir set in a large square glassine envelope and adorned them with labels made especially for Melody in the style of none other than Lace and a little thank-you message to seal each envelope. I really am going to try these for just about any occasion that works; for instance, a beach party is next!