Happy Halloween, dear readers! This post is really just to say 'hey' on our favorite spooky holiday and to share some of the stuff my little girl and I have been churning out this month for a bake sale! It's the reason behind the belated postings this month, please forgive!
That's right, it's our old favorite holiday cookie activity, making decorated sugar cookies to celebrate the day. Previously we've made them for Xmas, Valentine's Day and Easter, and now, finally we made them for Halloween! We're going to share some new cookie decorating tips we tried out that are totally right-on and also share the new royal icing recipe that we're using that totally upped our cookie game!
These are the cute Halloween themed cookies that we made with our gingerbread man cookie cutter. First there is the Headless Gingerbread Man, a wee butcher who slipped and accidentally chopped off his own head, oh no! Easy to make, just cut out and bake the cookie like normal. Once the cookie is cooled cut the head off with a sharp knife and then decorate with lots of gore lol.
To the right is our Gingerbread Voodoo Man. Use royal icing to decorate with stitches and button eyes and a red bleeding heart. To stab through the heart we pre-prepared a voodoo pin made from a shortened toothpick with a black colored sugar ball tip. We stuck the black sugar balls on with a bit of very thick royal icing, which allowed it to dry faster. Once the icing is really dry the pin is pretty steady! Just remember to prepare a hole in the cookie for the pin to go through before the red heart icing dries hard.
We also used our gingerbread man cookie cutter to make Skeleton Cookies, so cool and spooky, amirite?!
More bone-iness, our Grim Reaper and Skull & Crossbones cookies! The new technique we learned with these cookies was the 3-D effect we could create for the black shadowed areas of the eyes, inside the skulls and reaper's cowls.
The trick for black areas like this is to use black royal icing to paint specific cookie areas a flat black before the usual decoration technique of outlining and flooding begins. This way you can achieve black areas that are sunken in a very 3-D way. Looks good, rite?
For our Halloween Pumpkin cookie we also used the technique of painting black icing on the cookie before outlining and flooding. In this case the black areas are the eyes, nose and mouth of the pumpkin. This sunken effect is very nice, I love how it looks!
Previously for something like this pumpkin I would have outlined and flooded the whole pumpkin area in one go, creating a flat orange surface. Then I would have added the lines for the pumpkin segments and eyes, nose, mouth on top. This time, after watching some tutorials online, I realized that I could outline in smaller segments from the get go and then flood those smaller areas. This way the icing is not as thick and you can create volume and texture quite effectively.
My little girl and I were having so much fun looking for inspiration for our Halloween cookies. This one is inspired by the 'Wicked' musical's Broadway poster and a tiny bit by the two evil witches in 'original 'The Wizard of Oz' 1939 film.
Last but not least we were also inspired by the always ghoulishly delightful Addam's family and ended up making the whole family into cookies: Wednesday, Pugsley, Papa Gomez and Mama Morticia. We even found a sugar candy to play the part of Thing! Such fun, amirite!?
So here's the recipe for the new royal icing recipe that we've started to use. We used to make our icing with pastuerized egg whites. And then I finally decided to try using 'meringue powder' instead of actual egg white and wowzer, did that ever up our cookie icing abilities! Smoother, more stable, royal icing made with meringue powder is a joy to use!
Royal Icing Recipe (Meringue Powder)
(adapted from Sweet Sugarbelle's recipe here)
(makes 2 1/2 cups) Prep time: 5 mins
Ingredients:
- 1 lb icing sugar, 450g
- 2 1/2 tbsp meringue powder
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4-1/2 cup warm water
Directions:
Prepare flavoring: Stir the vanilla and almond extract into 2 tbsp of the warm water.
Mix sugar and powder: Add the icing sugar and meringue powder into mixing bowl. Use a whisk to stir together.
Add water: Place the mixing bowl in mixer with paddle attachment. Using the lowest setting, slowly add the flavoring mixed with water. The mixture will become lumpy and thickish.
Adjust water: Add more water, 1 tbsp at a time until the mixture reaches a honey like consistency. Turn the mixing speed to medium and mix for 3 mins or until the icing becomes thick and fluffy. When you lift the paddle the icing should form a soft peak.
Use the icing: The icing is now ready for using for decoration. You still need to adjust the thickness for whatever purpose you need it for. For example if outlining the cookie the icing should be thicker while if flooding the cookie the icing should be thinner.
Store the icing: Store the icing in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. For longer store keep the fridge for up to 6 weeks. Happy Halloween to all!
Pssst: For more tips on cookie decoration methods check out our posts below.
Cookie-liciousness at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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