Your family and friends will FALL in love with this Autumn Leaf Trio Cookie Collection from Confection Couture.
Here's what you'll need:
- Autumn Leaf Trio Cookie Stencil With Cookie Cutters
- AirGenie Airbrush System
- Gyro-Cut Craft and Hobby Cutting Tool
- Cookie Magnets
- Plastic Bottle with Dropper Tip
- Quadrant Masking Tool
- Stencil Genie
- Screen Genie
- Quadrant Masking Tool
- Isolation Tool for Cookie Stencils
- DecoPac Airbrush Food Coloring
- Midnight Black
- Firestone
- Harvest Brown
- Honey
- Super Red
- Lime Green
- Glad Press'n Seal
- Paper Towels
The first step, of course, is to bake and ice your cookies. Wait for the royal icing to harden completely before moving on to the next step.
Preparing the Airbrush Tool
Shake your bottle DecoPac lime green airbrush food coloring and load three or so drops into the reservoir of your AirGenie airbrush tool. Always test your airflow on a paper towel prior to spraying each color and cookie. Adjust the flow as necessary by turning the airflow adjustment knob on the top of the unit.
Airbrushing
Add the green color to one side of the oak leaf cookie. Fade the color by spraying more coats around the edge and less as you move towards the center of the cookie.
Next, flip the cookie over and switch to honey. It helps to have a spare airbrush gun - otherwise you will spend much of your time cleaning the tool between colors! Do the same for the honey on the opposite side as you did for the lime green. If necessary, add more green to even fill in the area where the colors overlap.
Now, switch to the maple leaf cookie and add honey to one side like you did above.
Cleaning the Airbrush Tool
To clean the airbrush tool between colors, take a bowl and dropper of water and add rinse out the reservoir 4-5 times. Then, fill the reservoir and run clean water through the tool. Repeat once again with water and finally a third time using an inexpensive 100-proof vodka.
Finishing the base colors
Load the firestone colorant next and fill in the other side of the maple leaf. Do the same for one side of the beech leaf using super red, flip the cookie, and complete the shaded design with harvest brown.
Optional: you can put a third color, honey, between the red and the brown sides of the beech leaf.
Stenciling
Next up is the trio leaf stencil! Take your Stencil Genie and separate the bottom and top pieces. Place the bottom on your prep surface and position the stencil so that the oak leaf vein design is centered within the square.
Use the Quadrant Masking Tools to isolate the oak leaf design and protect the rest of the cookie from overspray. Next, place the Screen Genie over the layers and lock it into place using the top piece of the Stencil Genie. Place the entire assembled apparatus over the cookie, carefully lining up the design with the proper location.
If any portion of the stencil tends to lift away from the surface of the cookie, use two stacks of cookie magnets to help press the stencil downwards.
With the harvest brown still loaded, airbrush the leaf veins onto the cookie. You may need to increase the airflow slightly while using the Screen Genie.
If the colorant starts to collect and fill in the spaces of the Screen Genie, gently wipe both sides with a dry paper towel.
Completing Your Cookies
Repeat the above process for airbrushing the veins on the maple leaf.
Finally, switch to midnight black in order to airbrush the veins on the darker beech leaf.
If you find that any of the colors has become less prominent after the food coloring has dried, feel free to add another light coat, but not so much that you cover up the leaf vein layer.
Your fanciful autumn cookies are guaranteed to "leaf" your guests wanting more!
