This one’s for the desi folks who come from mixed cultures or have non-Christian loved ones who don’t exactly celebrate but are always like the Christmas tree’s bright, glittery stars – they are part of the holiday cheer of Christmas. If you have a crackpot or two in your life chances are they will keep coming back to you or your Christmas parties once they see these quirky Christmas cookies.
You don’t need to be an artist, the fun lies in making your guests guess what exactly your cookie might be if it turns out funky! Trust us on that, some of us are not artistically inclined either and the whole process of making them is more fun. Here’s to an inclusive Christmas where your Christmas cookies become the talk of the town.
That being said, the fun starts with “f” i.e., frosting and fondant! Fondant can be complicated but gives better results, in case the artist inside you is nowhere to be found, ditch the fondant and focus on the frosting. You need a nimble hand for both. Here are more details:
Materials Needed:
Practicing will give you more confidence and it's always a good idea to use small bags and minimal frosting and try it out on a few cookies. Give it a trial run, maybe try it with family, and feed them the awry frosting designs before going for the grand baking scheme.
The good old summertime comfortable piece of cloth, sometimes worn as turbans and mostly around the waist, but always associated with middle-aged uncles or grandfathers, who can’t seem to catch any chill in peak summers, is now gracing cookies. Use your frosting skills to color the cookie any color of your liking, then pick a contrasting color. Say the cookie base is done in a bright blue, so white frosting cream paired with yellow to resemble the lungi pattern would work well. Brownie points to you if you can chalk out the rectangular shape of lungi then draw the patterns on them.
You know how the roads light up during Christmas and alternate between green, red, yellow, blue, and white, you can replicate these on your cookies. Get started with a white frosted background, then use black frosting to draw the light wires as if you’re hanging a drying line, then make ovals with different color frosting to represent lines dotting the black piping. For the non-artistic folks, frost your cookies on a pale blue or white background and dot the cookie surface with different colors, for that hazy filter look.
Larger cookies will make your life easier and make it easier for you to draw the badminton racquet. For the racquet frost the cookie using dark icing for the background, you can also use melted chocolate. Then pick up white frosting use an image for reference and outline your cookies, fill in the handle, and draw the crisscross of the wires. For the shuttlecock start with the outlined drawing of the semicircle cork end, then draw the radiating lines from the cork. The feathers can be a dollop of frosting on each line, which are then flattened to resemble feathers. If that’s too much work go for the criss-cross thing of the plastic shuttlecocks.
This is a winter trademark for those who dislike wearing anything figure-hugging or need a double layer of insulation against the cold. Think of a rangoli pattern or maybe your mother’s favorite shawl that has seen better days and try replicating that. Floral designs are a classic you and use a color combination of contrasting colors – red and white, yellow and black, and pipe thin lines to look like vines and tiny flowers.
Reminding you of Beauty and the Beast’s Mrs Potts and her son Chips, it's time they were captured on a cookie’s surface. That aside chai is an emotion for many Indians, a little homage to the porcelain and bone china teapots and their cups. You can frost the outline of a teacup with or without a saucer or the teapot then fill in the insides with the same colored frosting. Then use a contrasting color to draw tiny shapes on them. These could be hearts, petals, leaves or anything cute you can think of.