It’s your Lucky Day! Learn how to create this adorable St. Paddy’s Day cookie set. Multiple designs, with an all green color scheme-these beauties couldn’t be easier to make and are sure to make someone’s day a little bit brighter.
Only 4 icing colors and just a few additional materials are required to make this set. It’s a perfect cookiers of all experience levels (even beginners and kids!). Keep reading to find your materials list and a step-by-step tutorial.
Prep Ahead Timeline
I always find cooking decorating to be a lot more enjoyable and a lot LESS stressful, if I work in stage and prep my materials in advance. You can, of course, do it all in one go. But I prefer to break up the work. Here’s a look at a general timeline I like to follow:
Day 1: Prep your icing: I used my royal icing recipe in a flooding (10-15 second) consistency and achieve the following colors using Wilton gel colors white, lemon yellow, kelly green, dark green (white, lime green, classic green, and dark green). When creating particularly rich colors, it’s often best to start small and allow the colors to set up for several hours (or even overnight) before using. This gives the color time to develop and prevents over saturation. I like to go ahead and bag up all my colors into piping bags at this stage so I’m ready to sit down and decorate.
Day 1-2: Bake the Cookies: I used my go-to sugar cookie recipe. It yields approximately 12 cookies rolled to 1/4in thick. The width and thickness of your cookies will cause the exact cookie yield to vary. I cut out the following shapes (cauldron, shamrock, rainbow-which was actually a 3in circle cut in half).
Day 2-3: Ready-Set-Decorate! Grab your cookies and icing bags and start by flooding your cookies. Go ahead and work on any wet-on-wet designs at this stage too. If using icing transfers, now is a good time to complete those as well. Then allow your cookies to sit for at least 2 hours (or overnight) before adding on any final details.
Day 3: Take photos of your cookies! This is the hardest part for me because I’m busy getting them bagged/boxed and out the door. But you worked hard on these babies! So, make sure you take some awesome photos to showcase your effort and talent. Make sure the cookies have had a chance to air dry for 12-24 hours before you attempt to stack them or bag them. They can be stored in an airtight container for several days at room temp. Have leftover cookies or need to work in advance, they can also be frozen completely decorated in an airtight container for several weeks! Just make sure to allow the frozen cookies to remain in their container until they return to room temp. This will prevent condensation from ruining your beautiful designs.
Royal Icing Transfers:
If you plan to use the transfers for this set, I would recommend doing them first so they have plenty of time to dry before you need them. They need to dry for several hours or even overnight before they can be removed from the transfer sheet and used on your cookies.
To use the simply print the transfer sheet. I like to print on card stock for durability but printer paper would work as well. You can then place your sheet in a plastic page protector or underneath a sheet of parchment paper to create the transfers.
When they are dry, gently remove them from the transfer sheet using a flat scraper or spatula. To adhere to your cookies, pipe a tiny dot of royal icing on the back of the transfer and place as desired.
Download your free copy of the Shamrocks and Rainbows royal icing transfer sheet below!
Shamrocks Rainbows-Transfer Sheet
Download PDF • 41KB
Pot of Gold
1. First Steps: Outline and Flood
Start by outlining the bottom portion of the cauldron in your choice of green icing. Then flood that portion. Set aside to dry.
2. Final Details: Gold, Transfers, and Border
Start by piping a border around the cookie with green icing. You can use the same color green as the flood or another green to add some contrast. Next, pipe a small amount of icing at the top of your cookie and gently add on your gold “coins” sprinkles. Lastly, add on your icing transfer rainbows and shamrocks as desired.
Rainbow
1. First Steps: Outline and Flood
Start by outlining and flooding the cookie with white icing. Allow to dry for several hours before adding further details.
2. Final Details: Rainbow
All you’ll notice in the full set photo (at the top) I played around alot with this design. None of my rainbows look exactly alike. So feel free to have fun with this one and be as unique and creative as you choose!
Using alternating colors of green, outline and then flood arches of color. While still wet, add on any additional details like polka dots or lines to each arch as desired.
Shamrock 1
1. First Steps: Outline, Flood, Wet-on-wet
Start by outlining and then flooding the cookie with white icing. Quickly, while the icing is still wet, add 3 dots at each “leaf” of the shamrock. Take your scribe and gently drag it through each dot, moving toward the center and down to create mini shamrocks. Allow the cookies to dry for several hours before adding final details.
2. Final Details: Border and Accents
Pipe a border around the cookie with green icing. You may place additional other embellishments as desired, such as polka dots (pictured).
Shamrock 2
First Steps: Outline, Flood, Wet-On-Wet
Start by outlining and flooding the entire cookie green. I chose to use the classic green for this design, but you can alternate the greens as desired to create a different effect. Quickly, while the icing is still wet, pipe horizontal lines with white and the light/dark greens. Next, alternate dragging your scribe up and down the cookie. Allow to dry.
Final Details: Border
Use your preferred color (could be any of the colors used in the design) to add a border to the cookie if desired.
Shamrock 3
1. First Steps: Outline, Flood, Wet-on-Wet plaid
Start by outlining and flood the cookie with green icing (I used the classic green for this cookie). Quickly, while the icing is still wet, alternate adding vertical and horizontal lines with the white, light green, and dark green icings to create a plaid effect. Allow to dry.
2. Final Details: Border
Use your preferred accent color to pipe a border around the cookie if desired.
Shamrock 4
1. First Steps: Outline, Flood, Wet-on-Wet Polka Dots
Start by outlining and then flooding the cookie with green icing (again, I used the classic green but feel free to use whichever you prefer). Quickly, while the icing is still wet, use the white, light and dark green icings to place polka dots of varying sizes throughout the cookie. Allow the dry.
2. Final Details: Border
Choose an accent color (I used white icing) to pipe a border around the cookie if desired.
Side Note: I only used the royal icing transfers on the pot of gold cookies. I just felt like they needed a little something extra. But in hind sight, I think they would have been cute accents for any of the designs. So feel free to use them however you see fit!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and it brings you loads of luck! I’d love to see how your cookies turned out-please share and tag @simpleighsweets on social media.
