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Colette Peters

Celebrity Cake Decorator; Owner, Colette's Cakes

Fiesta Dress Cookies

Flashy and fun for Cinco de Mayo, these cookies get most of their flair from the wafer papering technique.

What you’ll need for a few cookies:

A few large (about 4 1/8 x 5 1/4-inch) dress cookies, topcoated with Royal Icing (I purchased this exact cookie cutter here.)
A few sheets wafer paper, black checks or another style (The best source of pre-printed wafer paper, including this pattern, is fancyflours.com.)
Pencil, or a toothpick or trussing needle to score the paper
Scissors
A few tablespoons light corn syrup
Small sponge brush
About 1 cup Royal Icing, for detailing (Allow about 1/4 cup per color, unless you choose the ruffled skirt variation in Step 5, below. In that case, allow about 1/2 to 3/4 cup per color.)
Soft-gel (aka liqua-gel) food coloring, assorted bold colors for Cinco de Mayo (think: red, green, yellow, blue!)
Parchment paper pastry cones (or substitute disposable plastic piping bags)
Extra powdered sugar, as needed to thicken icing
Small (about 5/8-inch) readymade royal icing daisies for additional decoration (optional)
Pastry bag fitted with a medium (#103) rose petal tip for ruffled skirt (optional)

To make:

1 | Air-dry the topcoated cookies. After you’ve smoothly topcoated the cookies with Royal Icing, let the cookies air-dry, uncovered at room temperature, until the icing has dried all the way through. Usually this means drying overnight, sometimes longer if it’s particularly humid. Since wafer papering in Step 3 requires the application of pressure to the cookie tops, don’t shortchange the drying time. If you do, you can crack or dent the icing when papering. Note: For added interest, I usually topcoat the bodice of the dress in one color, and the skirt in another contrasting one.

2 | Cut the wafer paper. Start by deciding where you want the paper to go. You can cover the whole bodice, the whole skirt, inner or outer parts of the skirt as pictured right, or any other portion of the cookie that is iced. (Wafer paper will not stick to an un-iced cookie.) For papering, you only need a few things (second photo): 1 or more sheets of wafer paper, a pencil (or toothpick), scissors to cut the paper, corn syrup to act as the “glue,” and a small sponge brush to apply the corn syrup to the paper or the cookie, as your cookie design dictates. (More on this point in the next step.)

But first . . . if you’re not a wafer paper aficionado, there are some things about it that you should know. One, it’s not a transfer paper, meaning it is stuck directly onto the cookie icing; the image alone isn’t transferred. So you also eat the paper, which (have no fear) is nothing more than a potato starch-water-oil mixture that has been dehydrated and printed with food coloring. Wafer paper is virtually tasteless. In fact, it’s much like a communion wafer if you’ve ever had one. People might have a “what the h@#$ is this” moment when they first bite through the paper (its texture is definitely unexpected), but the paper dissolves rapidly on the tongue, so this moment is usually quite fleeting. Nevertheless, if you’d like to minimize textural surprises, then choose a design that uses the paper more sparingly.

Cut the paper to fit the space you want to cover. The easiest way to ensure a good fit is to set the paper on top of the cookie and to lightly trace around the area you want to cut out, making sure that your tracing marks extend slightly beyond the desired area. Then cut just inside the marks to remove them from the paper. (To avoid tracing marks altogether, you can also score around the desired area with a toothpick or trussing needle; then cut directly along the scoring.)

3 | Apply the wafer paper. If the paper is going to cover the entire cookie or a self-contained area, like the whole skirt, then carefully spread a very (and I mean “very”) thin layer of corn syrup directly on the dried icing using the sponge brush. The corn syrup should not be pooled anywhere on the cookie; if it is, blot off the excess with paper towel. The surface of the icing should simply be tacky, not wet, from the syrup, or the paper will buckle and not stick, or even dissolve. Set the wafer paper on top and gently press it down to fix it in place. Oh, and avoid bristle brushes, as the bristles usually end up stuck in the corn syrup.

If the paper is only going to cover a portion of the skirt, such as in the split skirt (photos 4 through 7), then gently apply the corn syrup to the back of the paper, rather than to the cookie top. If you do the latter instead and corn syrup accidentally gets on parts of the cookie that won’t be covered by the paper, the corn syrup will leave behind shiny and not-so-attractive spots even after it dries. Press the paper, corn syrup-side down, onto the cookie to fix it in place.

In either case, let the paper dry for at least 1/2 hour (with the cookie right side up) before applying any icing details on top. Also take care to press (and re-press) down the edges of the paper, even while it is drying, as they have a tendency to lift. If you apply icing details immediately, the paper is much more likely to buckle and lift.

4 | Add icing details on top. There are countless ways to decorate the tops of these cookies, so to keep it short, I’ll describe just one way (the split skirt) in detail here. The most important thing to remember in detailing is to mix the Royal Icing to the right consistency for the desired task. But first, tint the icing while it is thick and “glue”-like using soft-gel food coloring of your choice. (The color tends to set more evenly, especially when used in large swaths, if it is added before thinning the icing.) For delicate outlines, such as the red lines and purple swags on the split skirt, use icing of outlining consistency piped through a parchment cone with a small (less than 1/8-inch) hole cut in the tip. For dots, such as those along the neck and bottom of the dress, use icing of beadwork consistency - again piped with a cone with a small hole in its tip. Photos 4 through 7 show the general order in which I applied details to this cookie. If you plan to embellish with readymade royal icing daisies, as I have here, just be sure to plant them on icing that is still wet, or use more icing to stick them in place.

5 | Try a ruffled skirt variation (optional). To make a ruffled skirt with a center checked pleat (middle dress in top and bottom photos), start by applying a wedge-shaped piece of wafer paper in the center of the skirt, following the instructions in Step 3. After the paper has dried, pipe ruffles of icing in alternating colors along either side of the center pleat. For this task, use a pastry bag fitted with a medium (#103) rose petal tip. Be sure to hold the tip so that length of the opening runs perpendicular to the cookie, with the narrower end closest to the cookie surface. Start your ruffles at the bottom of the skirt, and work your way to the top, overlapping the ruffles a bit as you go. Add other details to the bodice and center pleat as described in Step 4. Then you’re done and can party on!