Pysanky Easter Cookies – Never Underestimate the Decorating Power of a Toothpick –

Original Post 3/29/10

I heard somewhere that the number one children’s toy of all time is a cardboard box. 

Yep. 

A cardboard box. 

In 2005 it was added to the National Toy Hall of Fame.

A simple box with endless possibilities.

This came to mind when decorating these cookies. Many of us have succumbed to buying pricey decorating toys to play with.  As a matter of fact, I am sure my cookie cutter collection is worth the same as the GNP of a small nation.  Printers with edible ink anyone? Cricut machines? speculaas molds?  Pricey dragees, colored sugar crystals, luster and disco dusts?

A toothpick just blew my creative mind.

Pysanka is an elaborate style of decorating Easter eggs that comes from the Ukraine. I have seen similar eggs in my travels through the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Last week I saw this great tutorial on the King Arthur Four website and decided to do all my bunny and egg cookies in this style.

I have tried this technique before but I never committed to it as a decorating theme for the whole batch, just a random cookie or two.  The tutorial shows three basic techniques, for hearts, stripes and circles.  All you need is a toothpick.  In it, she used pastry bags to apply the stripes, dots and circles to the cookies.  I used a thin paint brush.

There are so many possibilities for switching up the colors and techniques.

A toothpick is now my new cardboard box.