Pokemon Cookies used as Cupcake Toppers (Royal Icing)

One more fun cookie project made! As you most know that I work with a charity that brings birthday's to homeless kids staying in shelters. Please check out Birthday Dreams (they can use all donations). I had a request for an 9 y/o little girl wanting a Pokemon Theme. I've done a few Pokemon themes before for them so I thought I would try to do something different. I'm really loving royal icing and how the cookies make the perfect toppers.

  
What you Need:

Sugar Cookies cut into circles

Royal Icing in yellow, red white and blacj(recipe below)

AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring yellow, red and black (to dye Icing - This is my fav brand)

Food Pen in black and red

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 Pikachu I dipped in the yellow royal icing. When that was dry I took the food pens and drew on different Pikachu face's. I started with red cheeks using a red food pen (little circles toward the bottom of cookie). I than took a black food pen to draw on the eye's, nose, mouth and tongue (on a few). For the ones I added a tongue I used a red food been to color it in. for the open eyes I used white royal icing it add a dot like a twinkle in Pikachu's eye.  I'm no artist and was very worried about how they would turn out.

For the Pokemon balls I had to use the piping method. I started with white and made a half circle. I then piped on red for the other half of the circle. When that was dry I took black in a pipping back and drew a line between the red and white halves. I then added a black circle in the middle. After that dried I added a white circle in the middle of the black circle. I did this last part right before I left so when I put lid on some of the white came off (make sure you do this with time for it to dry!!). I let those dry before moving or adding to the cupcakes.

Once the cookies had dried I then added them to the top of frosted cupcakes. I'm obsessed with royal icing and love the way they come out. This way the kid not only gets a cupcake but a cookie, best of both worlds.
 

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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.