Easy Cookie Decorating

Dust

Sprinkle powdered sugar around a stencil (cut from card stock with a craft knife) onto gingersnaps to create a pretty pattern.

Inspired by Lindley Bynum Foss and Susan J. Tweit, via Sunset's Facebook page

Free stencil: Download our templates

Give even store-bought biscotti a homemade touch with melted white chocolate.

Inspired by Kelly Davis, via Facebook, and Pam Heisler, Grand Forks, ND

Add texture to sugar cookies using cooking tools (clockwise from top): cannelé mold, diamond-shape cookie cutter, 5-hole zester.

Inspired by Maria Bruhns, via Facebook

Show the cookie flavor, here a walnut Mexican wedding cake, with a nut pressed into the dough before baking.

Inspired by Henry Mendoza, Marina del Rey, CA, and Tyffani Peters, via Facebook

Brighten cheesecake bars with seedless raspberry jam piped through a pastry bag.

Inspired by Rumin Jehangir, via Facebook

Make decorating these cookies a group activity. Prepare your favorite shortbread recipe up to two days ahead (store in an airtight container). Or take a shortcut: Start with store-bought butter cookies.

Inspired by Andrea Ramirez, via Facebook

Prepare the glaze (whisk together 1 cup powdered sugar and 21/2 tsp. milk), and dip the cookies face down in it. Let them dry. Shortcut: Skip the glaze for a more natural look.

Using a plain, super-fine pastry tip, pipe on ribbons of your favorite homemade royal icing. Shortcut: Use ready-made icing in a small (0.68) tube, sold at most grocery stores.