Cookie Craft Christmas: Dozens of Decorating Ideas for a Sweet Holiday [Hardcover]

Janice Fryer (Author), Valerie Peterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2009

Make every Christmas a cookie craft Christmas! The holidays offer just the right combination of cold weather and family togetherness for cookie crafters to elevate their skills to showstopping new heights. With more than 60 new Christmas cookie designs, along with festive New Year’s cookies and lovely Hanukkah treats, Cookie Craft Christmas delivers colorful inspiration to cookie decorators just when they need it most.

Each spread features a full-page, close-up photograph of one cookie cutter shape with detailed decorating instructions on the facing page. Some pages feature one gloriously decorated cookie, while others might feature two or three interpretations of the same shape — ornaments in complementary colors, Christmas trees decorated in varying styles, or gingerbread men wearing a rainbow of colors and patterns.

Decorating instructions are as simple as tinting cookie dough green before baking Christmas trees or as intricate as piping hair on a gingerbread grandma, creating a frilly pattern for her apron, and decorating her dress using a pretty feathering technique. Techniques are described in full in a Decorating Glossary, and cookie and icing recipes are included.

Fresh inspiration and fabulous decorating ideas fill the pages of this handy little sourcebook. It’s the perfect gift for anyone who has ever picked up a pastry bag.

Publisher's Note: 

The chart on page 17 gives ingredient quantities for making royal icing with meringue powder. Please note that you should use only 4 teaspoons of meringue powder for 2 cups of confectioners' sugar in both the piping and the flooding recipes. (The table incorrectly gives the meringue powder quantity as 4 tablespoons.) This will be corrected in reprints of the book.

Our thanks to an alert reader for finding and pointing out this error and our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A great little stocking stuffer or hostess gift of a book: a cookie book filled with inspiration and eye candy for bakers.” (Apartment Therapy )

“If you are in need of some fresh ideas for the holidays this is a great book with lots of colorful inspiration.” (CookieGoodness )

“Cookie Craft Christmas is a small-but-mighty-book with decorating ideas for a sweet holiday.” (The Omaha World-Herald )

“Be still, oh, joyful baker’s heart. A little book that can rescue holiday bakers.” (Chicago Tribune )

About the Author

Janice Fryer is a Pastry Arts graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. A California native and a New Yorker at heart, she lives with a crazy cat and an even crazier dog.  Keeping them from eating her creations is always a lively challenge.

Valerie Peterson is a writer with over fifteen years of experience working with cookbooks. She grew up in Yonkers, New York, where her second favorite toy was her Easy-Bake Oven.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 169 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (October 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603424407
• ISBN-13: 978-1603424400
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kind of disappointing...but still worth the money!, October 25, 2009

By 

K. King "kathy181" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cookie Craft Christmas: Dozens of Decorating Ideas for a Sweet Holiday (Hardcover)

One thing I didn't expect when I opened my Amazon box was to find that this book is only about 6 x 8 inches (it's TINY)! Who put my book in the dryer?

Anyway, I'm a fan of these ladies' Cookie Craft book and I pre-ordered this one and eagerly awaited it's arrival, so after I read through the whole thing I came away feeling disappointed. That's it? I felt there were too many "easy" cookies that weren't that impressive. Their best work is all represented on the cover so I was hoping for much more of that, but didn't find it. Oh well, it's still a cute book that might give you some ideas to work with.

Back to the size - you should take it into consideration because if you want it for a coffee table book, it's a bit too small for that. Also, if you want to prop it up on your counter to look at while you're working (like I do), good luck. You'll need something to keep the book open, but still not block what you're trying to see.

It's a good book for straight-forward Christmas cookie icing with lots of style. It's worth buying!

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Error in Royal Icing Recipe?, November 10, 2009

By 

B. Thompson (West Lafayette, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cookie Craft Christmas: Dozens of Decorating Ideas for a Sweet Holiday (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed the authors' first book and received Cookie Craft Christmas as a gift from my daughter. As I was reviewing the recipes on page 16 and 17 for royal icing, I found what appears to be an error. On page 17, at the top, it says to use 4 tablespoons of meringue powder with 2 cups of confectioners sugar for both piping and flooding, but only 3 tablespoons with 4 cups of confectioners sugar. This made no sense to me, so I checked in the original book and it appears that it should have read 4 teaspoons instead of 4 tablespoons. Did anyone else notice this? Are the recipes incorrect?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Valarie and Janice for another amazing book......, December 30, 2009

By 

Happy Mom of 6 "Tracy" (San Juan Capistrano, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cookie Craft Christmas: Dozens of Decorating Ideas for a Sweet Holiday (Hardcover)

I have so many post-it note flags in this book! I was so inspired (see customer images) I had to share my photos!! I am a beginner at this, I have been watching Martha Stewart do it for years, but really needed a book like this to get my groove on, LOL! Thank you Valarie and Janice for the much needed inspiration.

To all you busy moms out there, it is not impossible to make gorgeous cookies. Follow the directions of this wonderful book (small but mighty) and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish! I have 6 kids underfoot, and was able to decorate over 150 cookies as gifts this Christmas. I didn't buy any gifts or go to the mall, I just got in the kitchen with this book and went for it. I took 1 day to bake, and the next to decorate. Next year I will start earlier. They keep well in clear favor bags sold at craft stores, with a pretty ribbon of your choice to close the top. Hope you find this book as inspirational as I did! :)