Goodness me, these were SO fun to make! My shamrock cutter was a little bigger than I’d realized, so I only got 48 cookies out of the two doughs, but I had almost one cup of icing left over. I’m sure there’s a technical term out there, but I call this “marbling” or “tie-dye” technique. Easy-peasy, and gorgeous results!

I can’t pick a favorite cookie from the bunch, as each one is so beautiful. I love the swirls and whirls – so pretty!

Now, to make these, I suggest having these items ready:

– cooled, cut-out sugar cookies
– royal icing (tinted to 2-4 different colors)
– spoons (one for each color)
– paper plate (smaller is better)
– wire rack
– toothpicks

Set up your workspace. Mine looked like this:

When tinting the royal icing, be sure to make more of your lightest color (in my case, white). I made the icing, portioned out the white, tinted the rest a pale green, portioned out a smaller amount, and then tinted the remaining icing an even darker green. I had almost twice as much white as dark green when I was ready to decorate.

Drop a very large spoonful of the lightest color onto a paper plate. Next, plop a spoonful of the medium color on top of the base color. Last, drizzle a half-spoonful of the darkest color over the other two colors. Use a toothpick to swirl the colors a bit, if you’d like. (I usually just stuck with drizzling, but toothpicks are still handy to have around.)

Your icing palette will look something like this:

Begin dipping your cookies. One at a time, lay them face down into the icing. You can press on the edges (in this case, the clover petals) to make sure that each edge is taking on the icing. Carefully lift the cookie out and flip over – a masterpiece! Continue dipping until you need to “refill” your palette (I found I needed to add a bit more icing after every third cookie, but I’m sure that is dependent on the size of your cookies, your plate, and the amount of icing you put down).

Tip: I used a dessert-sized paper plate for my palette. I’d recommend the smallest plate you have that will allow your cookies to lay flat on the icing. The icing will spread, and royal icing dries out very quickly at the edges. If you use a large plate, be prepared that your icing will creep to the edges easily.

Place cookies on a wire rack or waxed paper to dry. Mine dripped a bit around some of the edges, so the rack was handy. Royal icing dries fairly quickly, but I find it to be a bit persnickety if not completely hardened when storing, so be sure to wait 8-12 hours before stacking/wrapping the iced cookies.