Fancy Fleur-de-Lis Cookies

I love baking all kinds of cookies, but I’m sure its no surprise to ya’ll that the blank canvas of a sugar cookie makes my heart sing. It’s truly a cookie for every occasion, just waiting to be customized in a way that makes their recipient smile.

For my aunt’s birthday, I wanted her cookies to be equal parts sophistication and sparkle, just like her. Of course, they had to be very special as a 65th birthday is a most special occasion.

Right away, I knew the cookie I wanted to make and headed over to Sweetambs’ tutorial on what she calls enameled cookies. Her work is amazing and I followed her tutorial closely, skipping a couple steps to make the cookies a little simpler and a little sturdier for shipping.

Before moving on, I highly suggested you pop over to Sweetambs to see the original version of these cookies as they will seriously knock your socks off!

Here’s the play-by-play for these simplified, but still pretty fancy shmancy cookies! Let’s start with a supply list:

20 second icing, Wilton Delphinium Blue
20 second icing, Wilton Aster Mauve
Stiff icing, Americolor Bright White
Stiff icing, Gold-base icing (Americolor Warm Brown + Wilton Juniper Green)
Gold Luster Dust
Pearl Luster Dust
Fondant & Fondant Mold (I used this fleur-de-lis mold)

In advance, make molded fondant pieces following Sweetambs’ tutorial. If your fondant gets sticky and stuck-ish, as mine did, pop the whole mold in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes and the fondant should pop out much easier.

Moving on to the cookies, flood your cookie with blue or pink icing and while still wet, pipe on a few white stripes. Don’t worry about air bubble or perfect stripes, as you’ll now use a toothpick or scribe tool to swirl around the icing creating a marbled effect.

After waiting 8 to 12 hours for the icing to fully dry, use a scribe tool (shown below) and a circle cookie cutter (I used a 1.5 inch circle from this Ateco set) or a circle cut from cardstock to scratch a guide for your bead border frame.

After scratching your guide, use a clean dry paintbrush (that’s only been used with food!) to brush off the icing dust.

Using stiff white icing and a number 2 tip, pipe a bead border. If you need more help with this step, check out Sweetamb’s video tutorial.

Next, using your stiff brown and/or white icing and a number 2 tip, pipe whatever details you like.

I had fun trying out filigree and little mini fleurs-de-lis (pardon my undoubtedly incorrect french!).

Jumping to the outer edge of the cookies, add another bead border with white icing and the same number 2 tip.

Wait at least an hour before painting on a wet application of gold luster dust. I used Wilton’s gold pearl dust.

One quick tip on painting luster dust: In the past, I’ve struggled with luster dust, finding that I needed multiple coats to get good coverage and having issues with the liquid eating away at the piping icing.

For the best coverage, I now like to start with quite a bit of dust and then add as little alcohol as possible to create a liquid that has nice movement.

What a difference the luster dust makes! I love sparkle!

For even more sparkle, add a mix of gold and pearl luster dust to make a champagne color and paint the white accents on the cookie. I really think this step makes a big impact on your cookie. The champagne luster tones down the white accents and integrates them into the antique jewelry feel of the cookie. Of course, we can thank the brilliant Sweetambs for that step!

Finally, use a few small dabs of icing to adhere the fondant fleur-de-lis to the cookie…. and voila!

Elegant, eye-catching cookies that would make for wonderful favors at a wedding, engagement party, or anniversary party. And of course, I hope they made my aunt’s 65th birthday a little more special.