Five Beautiful Things
These Cookies Don’t Crumble
On the weekend, my friends and I attempted to decorate cookies. We made shortbread cookies in the shapes of winter sweaters and then decided to ice them to create fun sweater designs. It was an exercise in patience, but it was fun! Some of the icing bled off the side of the cookies; some of the swirls and designs we made were jagged and crooked and off-grid, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely and ate all the evidence of our baking shortcomings. You can see two of our creations in the last image in the series below.
The first four of the cookies shown below, however, were iced by masters. These bakers are the Da Vinci’s of the cookie world, the geniuses and the prodigies. The aim here is not to make myself (or anyone) feel bad about their own cookie decorating ventures, merely to demonstrate how anything can be elevated to an art form under the guidance of a creative mind, a steady hand and a patient soul. I marvel at the intricacies of the designs and the imagination behind them. Have fun with your baking this year! And if your cookies aren’t iced with perfect contour and elaborate filigree, just call yourself the Jackson Pollack of the cookie world. Solved.
