With all the cookies and cake photos out there on the internet, we tend to constantly compare our work to the work of others, which isn't fair to ourselves. It is important to remember that everything takes practice, and it's impossible to suddenly become good at something overnight.
I've posted these photos to show you where I started and how much my work improved over 6 years of decorating. The best thing to do to improve your skills is to spend lots of time experimenting with the techniques and, if you get frustrated with how things are going, take a break and try again. Gather all of the information you can through books, videos, decorating courses, and practice, practice, practice.
Brush Embroidery
Crowns
Christmas cookies
Wet-on-wet filigree
Monogram cookies
Hanukkah cookies
Cameos
Wet-on-wet plaid
Filigree
As you can see, not only did my decorating skills improve, but my photography skills improved, as well. Using natural light (or a light box, if you have one) is key to taking good photos. I use my iphone to take my tutorial shots, but when I'm photographing the final product, I use my Olympus e-520 DSLR, which I received as a Hanukkahristmas gift from my grandma.
I tried wet on wet and brush embroidery cookies for Balentines Day. First time ever decorating cookies. You inspired me. I watched your tutorials until I felt confident then just went for it. Not perfect but my friends at work were so impressed. Bought more supplies today! Thank you for the inspiration.
It makes me so happy to hear that, Marcia! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing your before and after photos. It inspires me a lot. Love your cookie designs. They are all amazing!
Ouf I'm not the only one...The second time I tried your brush embrodery technique, I literally cried because it was not as pretty as you. I tried again and once I was satisfied with the results, I felt so happy. Gotta keep trying!
It takes some practice! Just keep at it!
preciosa su trabajo yo soy fans suya tengo tres meses de estar el lo que es todo en repostería,y busco tecnificas para hacer mejor el trabajo, espero llegar hacer como usted un trabajo lindo y bien echo fidelidades que Dios la bendiga mucho.
Thank you Amber! Still, you are amazing... Your level of expertise is awe inspiring!
Thanks, Renee!!
This is so inspiring! Thank you so much for share your beginner's experiences, and congratulations for the level that you reached! I simply love your job!!
Es realmente increíble que una persona como tu se anime a motivarnos en este trabajo mostrándonos tus inicios, felicidades y gracias
Omg.... Hope is the only word in my mind. Thank you for being so humble and give us this sweet ray of sugar XD !!!!!
Claudia, chilean beginner
Loved seeing your earlier work(which is still very good). I am very hard on myself and always think my cookies are not good enough, because I compare myself to decorators like yourself. I guess you have to start somewhere and keep practicing! Thanks !
Amber! Thank you for being so humble and show us the changes in your work! Thank you! You are an inspiration for me and many others!
What wonderful examples of how the right lighting and more interesting camera angles can make a world of difference! So inspiring! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this. I love your work. Then and now
So interesting to see! Practice indeed makes perfect!
Beautiful work! You inspire me. This is a passion of mine. Going to try to practice and learn from others. Never can reach all there is, but going to try to keep reaching! TY
love this--encouragement to keep going
Thanks for sharing your before and after photos. There is hope!!
Thank you for sharing these! It's truly heartening to see such an improvement. I have such issues with filigree designs and I'm glad to see I'm not alone! I think I need to just loosen up and practice, practice, practice! Thanks again and keep up the amazing work!
When I see this give me hope! I will get better! 🙂
Just saw this post of before and afters- so inspiring! I'm somewhere in the middle of the two stages, and am so thankful for the time you put into pictures and tutorials. I could watch sweetambs videos all day!
Thanks, Cory! 🙂
so inspirating....
thanks!
This is so wonderful of you to dare post your before's and after's. How fun and encouraging to know that there is hope for all of us that stick to this!!!!! <3
That's exactly what I wanted to accomplish with this post! Thanks, Tina!
Hahahaha!! I'm laughing because my first attempt looked like I did them with my feet. It was super fun while I was sitting there alone in my house, laughing hysterically. I'm doing it for the stress-relieving artistic-expression of it all so I didn't mind that they weren't the prettiest things ever. Callye said they were good but I think she was just being nice. ;o)
I just made my second batch of cookies (they're in the freezer) and I'll do a second round this weekend. Let me just tell you, I have the cookie part DOWN. Down I tell ya! They're perfectly cut and perfectly baked, now if I could just get better at the royal icing. I know that will come in time. I have plenty of patience (and plenty of giggles left) so I know I'll get better. Thank you for reinforcing my belief!
I'm off to stalk more cookie blogs and cram more cookie info into my head.
Amber...thank you so much for posting this!! I was just talking to a blogger friend of mine over lunch about this very subject. I get very overwhelmed and intimidated by other's work. I have only been decorating for a year and a half but you can definitely see the difference in my work. You, Sweet Sugar Belle and Marian from Sweetopia have been extremely helpful and inspirational in my education!! I love your work and your tutorials! 🙂 Thank you so much for posting everything you do! all of it is so helpful and beautiful!
Hi Jamie! Thank you so much! I'm so glad that my tutorials have been helpful to you. I admire the work of Sugarbelle and Sweetopia very much, and it's an honor to be listed among them as your inspiration!
Thank you for those words of encouragement. I do get so frustrated when things don't go like they should and sometimes do not look like the image I have in my head!
I guess I'm impatient and want to run before I can walk... love your before and later photos, you are a real inspiration to me to try new techniques and to have new ideas.
Thank you Amber 🙂
Thank you, Jaqui! 🙂
I recently took some inspiration from your silhouette cookies - I piped out a simple trumpet dress and added ruffles at the bottom. However when I placed the dress into the wet flooded cookie, it absorbed some of the colour. Leaving me with splotchy white and blue dresses. I fixed them by flooding the dresses again. Any suggestions/tips to help me with this in the future would be helpful. What did I do wrong?
Hi Diane! Sometimes bleeding colors can be because there is too much color in the icing, or if the icing is too thin. I like to use icing that is slightly thicker than flood consistency (about 20 second icing). If you're making a dark color, you should try making it ahead of time so that the color has some time to darken on its own so that you don't have to add a lot of it at once. I usually make my dark colors a day or two ahead of time to let them sit in the refrigerator. Also, you could try drying your transfers in front of a fan, and then once you put them on the flooded cookie, put them in front of a fan again. The less time it takes for them to try, the less time there will be for colors to bleed! I hope that helps!
Hi! I'm a beginner with royal icing and after flooding a cookie it won't set and when trying to flood the icing was crusting on the edges ={
I stumbled upon your video's and am just blown away! I followed this link because it suggested I would find examples to show that your initial efforts were as bad as mine!! However, it seems you were brilliant from day-one!!! Beautiful work and great video's. Thank you.
It's always fun to see the starting point and progression.
Dear Amber, You are such a mentor. So open, inspiring and encouraging.
I am new to decorating cookies. Will keep reminding myself practice is my best friend. Your work always motivates me. Thank you for this post.
One question here, do you use Kopykake at all? If you do, when do you find it most useful?
Thank you, again.
Thank you, Yuka!! I actually don't own a Kopykake. Here is a tutorial on what I use instead. It's a low tech solution! 🙂 https://www.sweetambs.com/tutorial/nyc-cookie/
Thank you, Amber for your reply. Great technique. I would LOVE to take your class one day when I get back to the US! Have a great day!
Dear Amber, thank you for your reply for my question. I will try the technique. LOVE your tutorials!
Hi Amber, Thanks for the great post. Can you tell please tell me if you do your lettering free hand or if you use a template. My biggest hesitation in cookie decorating is writing so any advice would be most welcome xx
Thank you, Carol! I do my lettering freehand. I am still afraid of writing "happy birthday" on cakes!! That's why you'll see that most of my lettering is just a monogram. That way I don't have to worry about everything lining up! If I do have to write a word or a name, I'll use my scribe tool to scratch the lettering into the icing and then pipe over it.
Thanks Amber. I'm making a bunch of cookies that requires some piped lettering, so will go with your suggestion to use the scribe tool to help me out.x
Whew. I feel much better now. Thanks for sharing this.
Hellooooooooo your before is still better than most people's after. I think it takes allot of patience and talent to work with royal icing. You obviously have both. I would love to see a wet on plaid tutorial someday. (:) ) <3 T
Thank you for the suggestion! I will make a tutorial for that one 🙂
Perfect
Amber,
I want to say with great sincerity, how much I appreciate this post! You sweet spirit and words of encouragement do make an impact! I have saturated myself in the " full measure of online pics, tutorials, blogs, and "liked" every FB page that is cookie related! I have watched most of your tutorials many times, and have made my friends watch them with me, even if they are not currently cookies, lol
But....the Bar....of cookie perfect just keeps rising at a very fast pace, it seems...and I have thought....what's the point,,,I can't get there!!! It's of course only been since Valentines that I made my first decorated cookie! so with a sigh, and a beautiful landscape of cookies ahead, I will press on!
Thanks, and continue blessings and inspiration to you, because we all reap the benefits!!
Vanessa F.~DFW, Texas
Thank you so much, Vanessa! I'm glad that this post gives you encouragement. You only just started, so you are correct, there IS a beautiful landscape of cookies ahead!! 🙂
Thank you so much. I am constantly comparing myself to the great cookie artists out there, and sometimes get discouraged. Your post was something that hit home to me this evening, and I thank you for sharing this! Your work is amazing!
Your work is amazing. I love seeing "beginning" photos. It really does give me hope that with practice and time, I could (one day) make wonderful cookies.
I did the same sort of thing for a Cake Pop post. My first ones were not good, but two years later they are much, much better.
Thank you, Karyn! I'd love to see your Cake Pop before and after photos. Please share a link if you don't mind!
This is sooo inspiring! Nothing beats practice. There are no shortcuts. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Thanks Amber for sharing these photos ~ shows me where I can hopefully be one day!
Amber thank you so much for posting this. It is so encouraging to see. You were talented to start but practice does make perfect and you have definitely perfected your craft!
Thanks, Anna 🙂
Hi.!! Love ur cookies I think I'm going to bake lots of cookies so I dnt have to bake every time and practice a lot.. what tip # do u use???? Thanks
That's a good idea! That's why I love cookies. You can make one big batch of cookies and spend more time decorating! 🙂 The tips I use most are 1, 2 and 3.
You rock. Thanks for being candid, honest and open. There is hope for me in the cookie world....thanks for the reminder. Practice. Lol.
I literally LOL'ed!!! at your first pic in this post. Looks exactly like my first attempt at brush embroidery. I think I have a ways to go still to get to your 'after' pic, but I'm getting there 🙂
Thanks for all your great advice always...and the beautiful eye candy that we all get to enjoy 😉
haha thank you!! 😀
How do you get the metallic icing?
Hi Lacye, here's a blog post on how to paint with luster dust on royal icing: https://www.sweetambs.com/tutorial/painting-on-royal-icing-with-gold-luster-dust/
Thank you for your encouraging email, I needed it!
I'm so glad it was helpful, Erica! 🙂
Before and after your cookies are pretty. It is so true though. Practice, practice and practice some more.
I'm organizing my first ever 'cookie decorating' party for me and my friends later this month, this will be the first time for many of us.
This post is just perfect and will help us to not get discouraged when our cookies fall short of your beautiful current efforts.
Thank you for all you do!
I'm happy to hear that, Marina! I hope you have fun!!
Hi Amber! 🙂
Did you take cookie decorating classes? Or did you just watch youtube videos?
Hi Helen! I took some classes and read books mostly. 🙂