For Easy Winter Latte Art, A Spoon And Toothpick Are All You Need

You don't need professional barista training to make cute latte art on the coffees you drink at home. Using foamed milk and freshly poured espresso, you can create Instagram-worthy snowflakes on top of your next mug of coffee. Simply use a teaspoon to drop dots of foamed milk onto the surface of the poured crema in a star formation and connect each droplet using a toothpick or skewer to draw a milky snowflake design in your cup. You'll want to make sure the milk foam you use is finely textured and silky so that the wintery design holds its shape. 

Snowflake patterns make for the kind of design that doesn't require any sort of perfect pouring pattern or fancy skills. Keep the milk droplets aligned in a circular form so that the marks you draw with either a toothpick or skewer can easily line up and it looks like a snowflake. After a few tries, your picture-perfect snowflake designs may become the talk of your household.

After you've mastered the technique of making snowflakes on top of your lattes and cappuccinos using droplets of microfoamed milk, you can try sprinkling snowflakes on top of your favorite milky coffee recipes with powdered cinnamon or cocoa. Use the handle of a spoon to help you connect up elements of your designs, or make cut-outs with parchment paper or aluminum foil that you can place gently over your coffee cups as a stencil. 

Snowflake designs can provide an endless source of inspiration, and depending on how complex you'd like your latte art to be, can keep you busy as you work to perfect the shapes and styles of your latte art. In time, you may find yourself enjoying more coffee drinks at home instead of heading to the nearest coffee shop for a pretty pour. With enough practice, you may even give your neighborhood baristas some stiff latte-art skills competition.