The Future Design Interior: halloween

Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts

Halloween cookies so easy, it's scary

{Are you scared, yet?!?}

OK....these have to be the simplest cookies EVER! You need 3 things:

cookies (I used Alphabet cookie cutters, like these)
AmeriColor Super Black Gel Food Coloring
Disco Dust

Outline and fill the cookies with black royal icing. While the icing is wet, sprinkle on the Disco Dust.

THAT'S IT!!!

Disco Dust is like bling for cookies. I can't even describe how sparkly and pretty it is. It captures the light like nothing I've ever seen. I hope these pictures do it justice:

I bought my Disco Dust from Amazon and if you are using Swagbucks, it's a great way to try it for free. Sweet Baking Supply also sells it and has it in a huge variety of colors! (I used the one called "Rainbow.")

And since it's almost Halloween, let me share with you the SCARY thing about Disco Dust....it gets EVERYWHERE!!! If you have a toddler, I'd definitely keep it out of reach. I made these cookies a few days ago and and still seeing sparkles on my table, my floor, my FACE. You've been warned! ;)

Hairy-Legged Spider Cookies : a guest post at TidyMom

While my girlfriend Cheryl of TidyMom is on a trip to Napa, I'm guest posting over on her blog.

{Although, if she were a real friend, she would have taken me along.}

Want to learn how to make these FUN and EASY hairy-legged spider cookies? Hop on over to TidyMom...I'll show you how.

{PS...while you're there, you might want to tell Cheryl that if she's not going to take her Texas friend along, she better at least drink a glass of wine for her!} ;)

Halloween Cookie Ideas . . .

If I were a good blogger, like say, Amanda from i am baker, I would already have new Halloween cookies ideas posted for you at the beginning of October. (Check out her boo-tiful cake!)

You can see where this is going, right? I'm a bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger! You'll see some new Halloween cookies, oh, around October 30th ;). {That is *hopefully* a joke.}

In the meantime, how about a few Halloween blasts from the past...

1. Spiderweb cookies: written & visual tutorials
2. Friendly Frankensteins
3. Creepy Coffin cookies
4. Sparkly Candy Corn cookies (with orange-tinted dough!)

What cookies are YOU planning to make this season?

Last-Minute Candy Corn Cookies

I got Boo'd, y'all!

Does your neighborhood play this game? It's kind of like Secret Santa. Someone leaves a Halloween happy on your porch, you leave one for someone else, and so on.

Well, I was so excited to get Boo'd for the very first time!!! Someone likes me! ;) Yay!

Now, what to do for my BOO? Immediately, I thought of these Chocolate Candy Corn Cookies from Everyday Food (October 2004).

They are really simple and if you have candy corns, you probably have all the other ingredients on hand, too. If you need a quick Halloween treat, these are perfect.

The cookies are addicting! I'm not a huge fan of candy corn (unless mixed with peanuts), but in these cookies, they just add a perfect amount of chewiness. I promise, eat one and you'll go back for another.

Chocolate Candy Corn Cookies
{adapted from Everyday Food}

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft
1/2 c sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/4 c dutch-process cocoa (or regular unsweetened cocoa)
About 36 candy corns

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment.

Beat/stir the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until combined. Stir in the egg yolk, vanilla, baking powder, and salt. Add flour & cocoa, and mix until a dough forms.

Scoop out level teaspoons (a measuring teaspoon, not a cereal teaspoon) of dough, and place balls on baking sheets, 2 inches apart. (It looks like too little dough for each cookie, but it works.) Roll into balls.

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are firm and cookies are dry to the touch, 10 to 12 minutes.

{While these are baking, start going through the bag of candy corn to find 36 good ones. You'll want to work quickly when they come out of the oven and it is very frustrating to keep grabbing broken candy corns. Trust me on this.}

Remove from oven; gently press a candy corn into center of each cookie (surface of cookies may crack slightly). The candy corns will stick once the cookies heat them up..they seem like they will fall off at first, don't worry.

Cool on sheets 1 minute; transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Make 32-36 cookies.

Tomorrow (the 31st) is Flavor-of-the-Month...Pumpkin!!!

Boo!

Creepy Coffin Cookies

Have you decorated Halloween cookies, yet? Let me show you some of my favorite spooky cookies...coffin cookies complete with skeletons!

These would also be perfect for Dia De Los Muertos! (Thank you for reminding me, AJ!)

This idea comes from Martha Stewart (like all good ideas). :)

The bones are made using Americolor Avocado, just a bit. The resulting color turns out to be a really cool pale ghostly green...like the color of something that is glow-in-the-dark, but not glowing. Anyone know what I mean?

To make them:

Pipe a coffin shape in black icing, using a #2 tip. (AmeriColor Super Black)
Thin black icing with water to a consistency of syrup. Cover with a damp towel and let sit several minutes.
Run a rubber spatula through the icing to pop air bubbles that have formed on top. Transfer to a squeeze bottle.

Fill in the coffins with the thinned black flood icing.
Let dry at least 1 hour.
Using a #2 tip and light green icing, pipe a skeleton shape on the coffins. (AmeriColor Avocado)

{I start with the hips...I don't know why.}

{Next, the legs and feet.}

{Head, backbone and tailbone(?)..any doctors in the house?}

{The neck bone's connected to the shoulder bone, the shoulder bone's connected to the arm bone...}

{..and the ribs.}

Using the the black piping icing and a #2 tip, make eyes and a mouth on the face.
Let the cookies dry overnight.

{You can even add a little sanding sugar on the bones if you'd like. I did a few this way last year, but decided I liked them better plain. Martha sparkled hers.}

Related posts:

Spiderwebs, step-by-step

First, I love you guys!!! Thank you so much for taking the survey. If you haven't yet, there is still time.

Your comments are so helpful...and sweet...and FUNNY! I wish we could all get together for lunch...or margaritas!

Several people mentioned that step-by-step instructions with pictures would be helpful. While, I'm no Pioneer Woman (but wouldn't that be fun?), I will try! {Please note, I do a lot of decorating at night or early in the mornings, so the colors may be a little off.}

Alrighty...spiderweb cookies, step-by-step...

Outline a spiderweb shape in black royal icing using a #2 or #3 tip (AmeriColor Super Black).
Thin black, pink and orange icings with water to the consistency of thick syrup (AmeriColor Deep Pink or Electric Pink and Orange). Cover with a damp dishtowel and let sit several minutes.

{Here's what the thinned icing looks like after sitting several minutes. Yes, the it looks charcoal-y colored...it will darken. Read more here.}

{Gently run a silicone/rubber spatula through...it won't get all the bubbles, but most.}

Stir gently with a rubber spatula to pop any air bubbles that have formed on top. Transfer thinned icings to squeeze bottles.

Working 6 - 8 cookies at a time, fill in the outlines in black, using a toothpick to spread into corners.

On top of the wet black icing, pipe on the thinned pink and orange icings in alternating circles.

Drag a toothpick through the icing, starting at the middle, towards the points to make a spiderweb pattern.

Let dry at least one hour.

{So, now it's night and my camera is not liking the lighting. :) Sorry!}

Using piping consistency (non-thinned) icing , pipe spiders on the webs using a large plain tip for the bodies (such as a #7 or #12) and a #1 or #2 for the eight legs.
Let dry overnight.

Don't hate me because I'm BOO-tiful!

October has to be my favorite cookie decorating time of year.

The pumpkins, the candy corns, the spider webs...oh my!

These cookies are some of my favorites...sassy little spiderwebs in bright pink and orange. No special cookie cutter required, any size round cutter will do.

Here's how to make them:

Outline a spiderweb shape in black royal icing using a #2 or #3 tip (AmeriColor Super Black).
Thin black, pink and orange icings with water to the consistency of thick syrup (AmeriColor Deep Pink and Orange). Cover with a damp dishtowel and let sit several minutes.
Stir gently with a rubber spatula to pop any air bubbles that have formed on top. Transfer thinned icings to squeeze bottles.
Working 6 - 8 cookies at a time, fill in the outlines in black, using a toothpick to spread into corners.
On top of the wet black icing, pipe on the thinned pink and orange icings in alternating circles.
Drag a toothpick through the icing, starting at the middle, towards the points to make a spiderweb pattern.
Let dry at least one hour.
Using piping consistency (non-thinned) icing , pipe spiders on the webs using a large plain tip for the bodies (such as a #7 or #12) and a #1 or #2 for the eight legs.
Let dry overnight.

Sweet Tombstones...and a BRUSH WITH MARTHA!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

First, here are the tombstones, or headstones, for Halloween. These were fun to make. I don't know if you can tell, but the flowers are supposed to be wilted like an old neglected grave.

I used AmeriColor Gourmet Writers (food coloring pens) to write the names.

....and here they are all bagged up and ready. My husband is taking some to his customers today. :)

OK....so a "brush with Martha." Really, it's not so much HER, but as close as I'll ever get. :) Do you read Martha's Everyday Food blog? It's called Dinner Tonight, and is one of the blogs in my google reader. Well, today they have a link to some of their "favorite creations" from a gallery of creepy treats submitted by readers.

Guess who had 2 cookies make the list....ME!!! This just makes my day! Is it sad that I had to get up and do a little "happy dance" when I saw them? Maybe...probably! :)

See if you can spot them. And, have a wonderfully sweet and spooky Halloween! BOO!

Dem Bones

The idea for these cookies came from the booklet, Martha Stewart Cookie Decorating (Simple Techniques For Extra-Special Treats). The link will get you to Amazon, but unfortunately, it is out-of-stock. My sister bought me this book last year from Michael's, but I haven't seen it there in a while. It's a great little 24-page book filled with ideas and instructions.

I always get nervous trying a new cookie idea, but every time I look at these, they make me laugh. I really like them. I used AmeriColor Avocado coloring for the skeletons and they ended up a ghostly green color, almost like glow-in-the-dark. I hadn't planned it that way, but it turned out pretty cool.

Here's a question for all of you....sanding sugar or no? I started applying it like Martha suggests and then couldn't decide if I liked them better plain or not, so I did half and half. What do you think? I'm already planning for next year. :)

I'm mailing these...and some others...to my dad so he can hand them out at work. Stay tuned later in the week for tombstones!

To make the skeleton/coffin cookies:

Pipe a coffin shape in black icing, using a #2 tip. (Spectrum Super Black)
Thin black icing with water to a consistency of syrup. cover with a damp towel and let sit several minutes.
Run a rubber spatula through the icing to pop air bubbles that have formed on top. Transfer to a squeeze bottle.
Fill in the coffins with the thinned black flood icing.
Let dry at least 1 hour.
Using a #2 tip and light green icing, pipe a skeleton shape on the coffins. (AmeriColor Avocado)
Before this icing has set, use the black piping icing to make eyes and a mouth on the face.
If using sanding sugar, let the cookies dry overnight.
Mix a little meringue powder with water and brush on the skeleton shape using a small paintbrush.
Sprinkle with clear sanding sugar.

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