How to Decorate Pumpkin and Sunflower Cookies

I'm grateful for cookies and for the upcoming fall season. This is my favorite time of year to be decorating!

This cookie project was inspired by a beautiful field of sunflowers near my house. It's literally sunflowers as far as the eye can see!

Check out the step-by-step video tutorial!

*If you're a member of the Flour Box Club, you'll find these cutters and stencil in your Fall club box!!

MINI SUNFLOWER ROYAL ICING TRANSFER SHEET

One of the key accents on these cookies is the mini Sunflower Royal Icing Transfer Sheet. CLICK HERE to download your free sheet!

THREE of these cookie cutters are exclusive Flour Box cookie cutters, the Sunflower Plaque, the Pumpkin with Sunflower, and the Pumpkin Cluster, and can only be found here - CLICK HERE!

Cookie Yield

For a single batch of dough, you can make about 18-22 of these cookies. I should note that I roll my cookies to 1/4" thick using the Dough EZ Rolling Mat System. The thickness of your cookies will impact your yield. Before I bake my cookies, I like to sketch them out and come up with a decorating and icing color plan!

COOKIE RECIPE: For a cookie recipe and rolling and baking video CLICK HERE - this recipe can be doubled in a KitchenAid Mixer. 

Prepping the Royal Icing

ICING PREP 

For a single batch of dough, I typically use a single batch of icing. Since I'm using a KitchenAid mixer, I made a double batch of icing and split it in half (reserving half for another project).

This cookie set has 5 icing colors. l don't measure exactly...I estimate. For a more detailed look at icing planning, CLICK HERE to read this helpful blog post.

ICING PLAN BY THE OUNCE (THIS IS BASED ON MAKING 5 OF EACH OF THESE 4 COOKIE DESIGNS - 20ISH COOKIES)

Buckeye Brown - 2 oz (pipe and flood)
Leaf Green - 1 oz (pipe only)
Golden Yellow - 3 oz (pipe and flood)
Sky blue - 2 oz (pipe and flood)
White - 3 oz (pipe and flood)
Sunset Orange - 8 oz (pipe and flood)

ROYAL ICING RECIPE

For a royal icing recipe and video CLICK HERE - this recipe can be doubled in a KitchenAid Mixer.

A few Extra Decorating Tips

A few thoughts on projectors:

I haven’t purchased one in three years, so there might be more options in the market, but here is my experience.

The KopyKake is low tech and super easy to use. But it is big and clunky and requires a dark room to use. 

I like my Bluetooth projector, but I like my first pico better – it’s cheaper too. I like storing my images on a USB drive.

Here's a look at how the Bluetooth works (starts around 7:30 in the video) - https://flourbox.com/blogs/tutorials/how-to-decorate-five-grad-cookies

And here's a look at the regular pico - https://flourbox.com/blogs/tidbits/how-to-pipe-text-on-cookies

 These are the units:

KopyKake Projector (I have the K1000) - https://www.kopykake.com/projectors/

Pico Projector – projector that I use with a usb drive

https://www.amazon.com/AAXA-Technologies-KP-101-01-Projector-built/dp/B005TAXDPK/ref=sr_1_21?dchild=1&keywords=pico+projector&qid=1604960761&sr=8-21 

The Bluetooth doesn’t look like it is currently available, but the suggested products on the page might be helpful -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HLCDZCS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

Project Timeline

Plan ahead to enjoy the most success with your cookie project! I break up the decorating process. It works better with my life to do a little each day. Here is the schedule for this cookie project and estimated times on how long each phase takes.

DAY 1 

Mix Dough (30 mins), Chill Dough (2 hours inactive time), Roll and Bake (1 hour), Mix Royal Icing and Prep Icing Colors - it is helpful to make the colors AND SUNFLOWER TRANSFERS the day before you decorate because the color will deepen overnight (1 hour). 

DAY 2 

Outline and Flood Cookies (1-2 hours), Allow to dry in front of fan before adding details (1 hour for standard cookies or 5-6 hours for stenciled cookies). Piping details and stenciling (1.5-2 hours) 

**ALLOW COOKIES TO FULLY DRY 18-24 HOURS BEFORE PACKING. STORE IN A COOL OVEN OVER NIGHT.**

DAY 3

For tips on packing cookies, CLICK HERE to check out this helpful blog post with links to my favorite packing and shipping materials. 

 Recreate these!

I would be so flattered if you recreated these cookies!

Be sure to tag @theflourboxshop or use hashtag #theflourbox so I can see what you create!

Common Tools in this Tutorial: 

• 6 Food Gels: Sunset Orange, Leaf Green, Golden Yellow, Sky Blue, and Bright White
• 10 Icing Bags
• 6 Tip #2 (PME or Wilton brand)
• 2 Tip #65s (Wilton) for the leaves and sunflower petals
• 2 Tip #67 (Wilton) for the leaves and sunflower petals
• 6 Couplers
• Royal Icing Scraper for stenciling
• Stencil Genie (optional)
• Airbrush System (optional)
• Orange and Yellow Airbrush Color (optional)
• Mixing Palette (optional)
• Craft Brush (optional)

Pin this post and save for later! 

Happy Decorating!

Anne