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Bottle Brush Christmas Tree Cookie Tutorial

You know what bugs me about Christmas decor? It stays the same every single year. Which oddly enough is also what I love about it. Let me explain. You know the magic that you feel when you open up the ornament box and pull out your very favorite Christmas ornament, assuming the kiddos didn’t smash it up while dragging the box out of storage of course. For me it’s a huge glass bulb with a golden metal nativity scene in it. I wish I could say it was a beautiful antique or a heirloom, but that sucker came from Target a few years ago. $9.99 price tag or not that thing is my favorite and I can’t wait to pull it out every year. Because traditions are what makes Christmas so magical. The lights, the tree, the cookies, the snow…ah. But at the same time, I love color, and decor in general and darn it some years I want a pink tree! (read: some = every) But atlas, until I find a money printing tree, toss out all traditions, send the hubs away for the season, and redecorate my entire living room to match every Christmas. That pink tree is just not happening. Insert Bottle Brush Christmas Tree Cookies!

bottle brush Christmas cookies on a mint backdrop and cookie cooling rack

Because instead of buying up every new and trendy colored Target Christmas line? I bake those ideas right up! I get to get that Christmas idea out of my system and I get cookies, always a win win. So this year I decided to bake up those beautiful colored bottle brush cookies I practically threw a toddler sized fit for in Target while my husband drug me out promising me Starbucks if I stopped.

I get my pretty colored bottle brush trees (including pink!) & Starbucks, he gets cookies. Again people this is all a win win!

several layers of bottle brush Christmas cookies on a mint green backdrop

Are you longing for colorful bottle brush trees as well? Let me help you make some!

RECIPES

SUPPLIES

  • white 20 second icing
  • mint, pink, coral, and dark green outline icing
  • brown 20 second icing (very small amount, I use my left over icing to make my brown once done decorating the trees)
  • white sprinkles

TOOLS

  • tree cutter
  • piping bag
  • small round tip

COLORS

Mint – Americolor Sky Blue + Americolor Electric Green
Emerald – Americolor teal + Americolor Sky Blue
Pink – Americolor Deep Pink
Coral – Americolor Deep Pink + Americolor Red
Brown – Wilton Brown

a step by step shot of how to make bottle brush cookies

BAKE COOKIES PLUS MAKE ICING

Step 1: Bake trees cookies + make and prep icing. If you’d like more info on icing check out this post for info. For these trees I wanted a whimsical tree shape but I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted in my forest of tree cookie cutters. So I do what I always do and headed to my Sugarbelle cutter stash. I settled on using my favorite candy corn cutter from the <a href=”http://amzn.to/2BGL4hH” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>Shape Shifter</a> set and the puzzle edger from the edging set.

DECORATE COOKIES

Step 2: Frost cookies in white 20 second icing and let dry for several hours. This part is optional but I really felt like it let the tree design pop out having the background white.

Step 3: Using your colored piping icing pipe a tree “trunk” aka straight line down the center. Then from the bottom up pipe straight lines up the cookies spacing them out about 1/8th of an inch apart. Once you’ve made it to the top go back to the bottom of the cookie and start filling in the spaces with more straight lines. The first icing lines should have set just a little at this point so the new lines won’t weld together. Don’t forget to leave a little space here and there for the bottle brush effect. As soon as you are down piping add on a little sprinkle snow if you would like.

Step 4: Once all your trees are done use your leftover icing to make a little brown icing and then pipe on little simple trunks stands.

Pretty easy right!

Now I’m off to shop for pink trees…

Or do I want a white tree…

Heads up! To keep those legal gurus of the world happy, I need to inform you that some of the links in this post are affiliate links. In short – I may earn a small commission from the use of said link with no cost to you! But don’t worry I only link to stuff I use, love, and know you will too!

Image of Toni Miller in front of a sprinkle shelf.

COOKIE DESIGNER

 I’m Toni, the baker, the blogger,  and cookie cutter maker  behind The Sprinkle Factory and I hope you find a sprinkle of inspiration here at The Factory.

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