Decorated Halloween Sugar Cookies

Halloween Sugar Cookies - The best, easy sugar cookie recipe with simple ingredients. Use your choice of cookie cutters and royal icing to make some cute Halloween treats.

Decorated Sugar cookies are my go-to when I need something that will impress.  They are pretty easy and can be made in one day, but they look like they took a lot longer.  I make the dough in the morning, and refrigerate it while I make the icing.  Then I roll, cut, bake and cool the cookies before coloring the icing.  I came up with some pretty easy but cute looking designs for these Halloween cookies.  The only Halloween themed cookie cutter I used, was the pumpkin.

I made all of my icings, then wrote down which designs I was doing and which colors.  From there I decided what I would need for colors of icing. Then I divided each color so I had a thicker outline icing and the thinner flooding icing (the inside of the designs). I used the thicker outline icing for decorating also (the ghost eyes, pumpkin swirls, vampire bunny eyes).

You can decorate them however you like, but here are some of my ideas.

Halloween Sugar Cookies

Ghost Cookies

**For these cookies, I used the top of a carrot cookie cutter, then used a knife to cut the bottom part off freehand.

White icing for outlining and flooding.  Wait about an hour or two until dry and gently pipe on some black eyes and a mouth.

Vampire Bunnies

Outline and flood in white.  When dry, pipe pink ears and noses, and black x's for eyes, mouth, and fangs.

Pumpkins

Outline and flood with orange.  When dry, pipe orange stripes down the pumpkin and add a green stem and curly swirls for decoration.

Spider/Boo

Outline and flood in white.  While still wet, pipe lines of orange across the cookie, side to side, one below the other. Take a toothpick and drag up and down the cookie, wiping extra icing off when necessary.  When dry, pipe spiders on, or the word "Boo."

Share your Halloween cookies or treats with me.  Leave a link in the comments, I'd love to see them!

Decorated Halloween Sugar Cookies

Jacqueline Piper

These sugar cookies are perfect for Halloween when they're decorated with royal icing and turned into ghosts, zombie bunnies, boo squares and pumpkins.

4 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 30 mins

Cook Time 10 mins

Total Time 40 mins

Course cookie

Cuisine Canadian

Servings 24 depending on cutter

Calories 209 kcal

Ingredients

  

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For the Cookies

• 1 cup butter, cubed (227 grams)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 3 cups all-purpose (360 grams)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt

For the Royal Icing

• ½ cup meringue powder
• 1 cup less about a tablespoon or so
• 2 lbs powdered sugar

Instructions

 

For the Cookies

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Cream together the butter and sugar.
• Add egg and extracts and mix.
• Combine dry ingredients in separate small bowl then add to bowl. Mix to combine.
• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill about 20-30 minutes before rolling and cutting.
• Sprinkle minimal flour on the counter and then on top of dough. Roll out. Use cookie cutter to cut out shapes. (Dough can be re-rolled. I usually refrigerate for 20 minutes first.)
• Place on baking sheet, leaving space in between. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until cooked and bottom or edges begin to turn golden.
• Let cool completely on a wire rack before frost.
• Cookies freeze well.

For the Royal Icing

• Using a stand mixer, mix together the meringue powder and water.
• Add powdered sugar and mix slowly until incorporated and then on high until stiff peaks are achieved, 5 minutes or so.
• Color with gel food coloring.

Notes

*Nutritional information is an estimate and intended for informational purposes only, and not to be used as medical or dietary advice. Estimate is per serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 209kcal

Keyword cookies, decorated, ghost, halloween, iced, icing, pumpkin, royal icing, vampire

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