Fall Sugar Cookies - leaves and pumpkins

I made leaf cookies for the first time last year swirling different frosting colors and then piping a heavy chocolate outline and/or leaf vein. They were okay, but kind of blah. This year, I wanted to try something different...something that would make the leaves pop!

Most of the leaf cookies I have seen and admire are done with royal icing (a technique I'm still building up the courage to try). I love the smooth texture and blending of colors, but a soft cookie and soft frosting is still my medium of choice.

For the pumpkins, frost the cookie orange and dip the cookie face down on a plate of orange colored sugar. Don't worry about covering the entire cookie, just gently dab and it will pick up in different areas. Then, pipe orange lines and an outline on the pumpkin for a little dimension. Pipe chocolate frosting for the stem and pipe a green swirl for the vine.

About half-way through frosting the leaf cookies, I started piping the chocolate leaf vein first and then filling in the rest of the leaf. I thought piping the leaf vs. frosting the leaf looked more leaf-like.

Here is a plate with both vein variations: cookie frosted/piped with leaf vein piped on top and leaf vein piped first with leaf then filled in.

Make sure you dip the cookie into the colored sugar (orange colored sugar used for these cookies) as soon as you are finished frosting/piping. If you wait too long, the frosting will set a little and the sugar won't stick as well.