Bring on the boots, sweaters, scarves...and cookies!

A cold front came through H-town this afternoon.
(H-Town...not to be confused with Big D or ATX.) 

Would you laugh if I told you that our high tomorrow will be a *chilly* 66 degrees and I'm already planning to bundle up in jeans, boots, and a scarf?  I mean, really...the temperature will be exactly the same as inside our local Target store.  But most days, I do need a sweater in Target.  Maybe that's why I have such a collection of Merona cardigans.

Anyway...the weather makes me want to decorate pumpkin and acorn cookies all day.  (While wearing boots and a scarf, of course.)

Here is the pumpkin how-to.  The acorns are made using the same basic method.  For those, I used two shades of AmeriColor Chocolate Brown food coloring.

To make the pumpkins, you'll need:

• pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies
• royal icing, tinted with AmeriColor orange, a darker orange (I used electric orange mixed with super red), chocolate brown and green
• disposable icing bags
• tips: #2 (and/or #1)
• squeeze bottles
• toothpicks

Use a #2 tip to outline the pumpkin shape in orange.

Thin the both shades of orange and the brown icings with water, a bit at a time, stirring with a silicone spatula, until it is the consistency of a thick syrup.  You'll want to drop a "ribbon" of icing back into the bowl and have it disappear in a count of "one thousand one, one thousand two." Four is too thick, one is too thin.  Count of 2-3 is good.  Cover with a damp dishcloth and let sit for several minutes.

Stir gently with a silicone spatula to pop and large air bubbles that have formed.  Pour into a squeeze bottles.

Working about 6 cookies at a time, fill (flood) the pumpkin with the thinned orange icing.  Use a toothpick to guide to edges and pop and large air bubbles that have formed.

Starting with the first cookie flooded, drop lines of the thinned darker orange icing on top of the wet orange icing to make the pumpkin "ridges."

Repeat the process with the thinned brown icing.

Let the cookies sit for at least 1 hour.

Use a #1 or #2 tip to pipe on a stem and vine.  I like the stem piped rather than flooded to give it some texture.

Let dry 6-8 hours, or overnight. (Keep in mind that the colors will deepen as they dry.)

Fall, I am officially smitten with you. 

{Portions of this post were originally published on 11-03-11.}