This year I tried to think outside the box when it came to my holiday baking. I made ornament macarons, color blocked gingerbread men, “all the sprinkles” cookies, and these marbled candy cane cookies. Using the dough marbling technique that I learned for polymer clay, I marbled red and white sugar cookie dough together before cutting out my shapes. Then the baked candy canes were dipped in red royal icing and crushed candy canes to create a pretty peppermint-y treat.

No Spread Sugar Cookie Recipe:


2 Cups Unsalted Butter (at room temp)
2 Cups Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 Tbsp. Vanilla
5 Cups Flour
1 tsp. Salt

Cream your butter and sugar for about 1 minute, then add your egg, vanilla, and salt. Mix until just incorporated. Add all of your flour and slowly mix until it just clumps around the paddle attachment. You don’t want to over mix the dough.

Now that you have your base dough, divide it into two parts and mix one part with red food coloring to create a red dough.

Begin to twist the red and white pieces of dough together to create marbled effect.

Once your dough has become marbled enough, roll out the dough and cut out your candy cane shapes.

Bake at 350°F until just set or about 8-10 minutes. Once baked, let cool while you prepare your royal icing and crushed candy canes.

For the candy canes, simply put them in a plastic bag and smash with a hammer until they are in small pieces. For the royal icing, mix powdered sugar and pasteurized egg whites until you get a thin icing. Add red food coloring to your icing (I prefer the “no taste” red by wilton). Now that you have all your supplies, begin dipping the bottom of the candy cane cookies into the icing and then into the crushed candy canes. Lay on a piece of parchment paper to dry.

Once the icing has hardened, arrange on your plate and serve to your friend and family, or simple scarf them down yourself! They are pretty and full of peppermint flavor and just perfect for the holidays. Do you have any fun cookie recipes that you love to make this time of year?