Train Themed Christmas Cookies

This year we mixed our Christmas cookies up a little and added a train.  I found a cookie cutter clearanced out at Meijer, which is easily my favorite store to be at and the one where I go to college always has the most interesting things on clearance racks.

The first train I decorated was...well...ugly...ok fine it was HIDEOUS.  I was thinking to myself, oh this cannot be.

So I gave it another go and we ended up vastly improved.  First and foremost, you need to do complex cookies in stages. As soon as linework dries, it is way easier to fill in than trying to go when it is wet and dragging and smearing colors.  Plus, the way the different colors bulge right where they meet gives something like a train more depth and dimension like a toy would have.

So first I do all the linework in black.  I Do it all at once, and for the most part and not worried if there are a few pull marks because I know I will fill it back in with color.  I do the wheels first, then outline the body.  Next I put the little puffers on the engine.  Lastly, I make any midsection lines and details that I want.

We do all our cookies with royal icing because it dries firm and makes them stackable.

Anyway, give that at least about a 10 or fifteen minute headstart- AKA, do all of your linework on all of your cookies first, because by the time you get to the last one your first should be dry.

Come back and add red and green to the body as you see fit.  As you can tell, this final cookie in the corner was not the one I had taken the linework pictures of, but you get the idea.

These are so darling and I absolutely want to make many more of them this holiday season.  So many people have little train sets that go around Christmas trees and other decorations that it only seems appropriate to give nod to them in the seasonal lineup.  Plus, as Dr. Sheldon Cooper points out...everybody loves trains!

Happy crafting!