Put the butter or margarine in the bowl and beat it with the mixer until it is smooth and fluffy. Then add the vanilla and the milk to the butter, while you continue to mix. Gradually add the powdered sugar, while continuing to use the mixer. Add it bit by bit, over the course of about 15-20 seconds. That way it doesn’t clump as you try to stir it. [2] X Research source
Start with a few drops of color then stir to see the new color of the icing. Continue to add the food coloring, a few drops at a time, until the shade is what you want. Darker, bolder colors will require more food coloring. In some cases, you may need as much as half a bottle of food coloring. [3] X Research source
Spoon the icing into the sandwich bag, and cut a small hole in the corner of the sandwich bag. Cut a very small piece of the corner to start, because you can always expand it if you need to. If you cut too much, the icing will pour out too quickly. Use one bag for each color, including the plain white icing. [4] X Research source
The thicker icing is the one you already created. It can be used for detailing, or drawing lines with frosting on your cookies. You can make the thinner icing by adding water to your icing, a little bit at a time. This runnier version can be used in a “flooding” technique, where you cover the entire surface of your cookie with a smooth, flat icing. [5] X Research source
Get a bowl of melted chocolate. Holding the edge of the cookie, turn it upside down so just the top dips into the melted chocolate. Twist the cookie a bit, left to right, to make sure that the entire top is covered in a thin layer of chocolate. Let the chocolate dry completely, it will take about an hour.
One easy design is to paint polka dots. You just squeeze small drops of icing out of your piping bags and drop them across the top of your cookie. The polka dots could easily be turned into hearts. With a toothpick, just shape the polka dots into the shape of hearts while they’re still wet. You can make stripes on the cookies that could easily be converted to zig zags. After drawing stripes across the top of your cookies, use a toothpick to turn the stripes into zig zags while the icing is still wet. [8] X Research source
With the white, thicker icing, draw rectangles on top of the cookie. These will serve as the white stripes of your candy cane. Using the thinner icing, fill the spaces between the white lines with red icing. [9] X Research source
With different colors of icing, you could add dots to the surface of the cookie that are “ornaments. " You could add sprinkles to the surface of the tree, or even edible glitter and crystallized sugar.
