Happy Halloween .. Royal Icing Cookies (Black Cat, Witch Hat and Ghost)

Happy Halloween everyone! I was hoping to get this post up over the weekend, but this darn head cold made me behind. I made the Zombie's for my oldest son, and for my youngest who is still cool with mom's treats I made Halloween themed cookies. I had these 3 pack from last year's Michael's clearance bin and used them this year. it came with a cat, hat and ghost. Since I had a half batch of royal icing I made another batch of fun royal icing cookies.

 

 

After the cookies had set up I put them in little bags for Caden to give to his friends in class.

 

What you Need:

Sugar Cookies cut into ghost, cats and hats
Halloween Cookie Cutters

Royal Icing in white, red and black (recipe below)

AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring Red and Black (to dye Icing - This is my fav brand)

Pipping Bag

I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details.

For the ghost I dipped in royal icing not colored. When the white was dry I then took a pipping bag with black royal icing and made the eyes and mouth. I saw on the package they outlined the ghost in black also but I liked this look.

For the witches hat I dipped in royal icing colored black. When the black was dry I took a pipping bag with red to make a ribbion and outline the brim of the hat. You can get fun and add dots etc or just leave black.

For the Cats i dipped in royal icing colored black.  When the black was dry I took a pipping bag with red to make the eyes (you can add a small black dot in the middle also but I liked the look with out). I took a ziplock with white royal icing to add a nose. I then took the black pipping bag to pipe on whiskers.

I like to do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to harden. 

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INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.