Not everything at Halloween has to be scary or gory. This year we obviously decided to go down the adorable and fun route with our candy stuffed Jack O’Lantern cupcakes, sweet little fondant bat, and now this cute ghost ghost cookie tutorial! That’s not to say that we’re utter pansies around this time of year (or at all). Oh no. We LOVE a good horror movie… or several (in fact they’re almost the only genre of film we watch). Anyway, to add a touch of sweetness to your Halloween party check out our tutorial below for the cutest ghosts you’ll see this All Hallow’s Eve!
Super cute ghost cookie tutorial!
Royal icing consistencies explained…
15 second royal icing - This kind of icing has a good fluidity to it, but it’s still nice and stable. It’s perfect for piping outlines AND flooding which cuts down on icing time, materials and mess. All you need to do is to test your royal icing and adjust it. When you drag a butter knife through a bowl of royal icing it should take just 15 seconds for the icing to pool back together. If it’s taking too long add a few drops of water at a time, mix in and test. Too quick? Add a teaspoon of sifted icing sugar, mix and test.
Piping consistency royal icing - Piping consistency is a little stiffer than 15 seconds. We aim for a consistency close to that of toothpaste. It’s also a great consistency for any 3d type detail work… just like the arms on these cool cookies! This kind of icing shouldn’t pool or spread. It should hold it’s shape well. If it’s too stiff add a couple drops of water, mix together and test it. Too sloppy… then add a teaspoon of sifted icing sugar, mix and test.
Materials and tools needed…
- Egg shaped cookies (Need a sugar cookie recipe?)
- White 15 second consistency royal icing
- White piping consistency royal icing
- Black piping consistency royal icing
- Pink confetti sprinkles
- Black edible sugar pearls
- Disposable piping bags
- Cocktail sticks
- PME Supatube piping tip size 2.5
- PME Supatube piping tip size 1
Tip!
Make sure that you work with this cute ghost cookie tutorial on a flat surface. It’s easy to be so busy that you forget this, but if you work on an unlevel counter or leave your cookies to dry on a wonky worktop then all your lovely royal icing work is going to slide and pool to one side of the cookie. Not good.
01: OK, start by outlining your cookie with your 15 second consistency royal icing and then flood in the centre with the same icing. 15 second consistency icing is such a time (and mess) saver isn’t it? We outlined our cookie with a bit of a flicked shape at the base, but you don’t need if you want a more simplified look.
Tip!
It’s best to work a cookie at a time instead of outlining all of them then flooding all of them. The reason for this is that your outline will begin to dry and crust over after around 30 seconds. When you go to flood your cookies and even out the icing you’ll end up with an outline semi-dried icing that will crumble into your lovely wet royal icing flooding as you work.
02: With a cocktail stick (or some people use a scriber tool) move and even out your icing to the edges in circular motions. Use your cocktail stick or tool to pop any pesky little air bubbles that you find along the way. These can be obvious bubbles on the surface or they can appear as small dark shadowy circles underneath the icing.
03: Now take two black edible sugar pearls and drop them gently in place onto your cookie where you’d like your cute ghost’s eyes to be! You can have these far apart or even close together, but make sure that they sit even and parallel to each other.
04: Take two pink confetti sprinkles and carefully place these onto your cookie where you’d like it’s cheeks to be. Again, make sure that these are parallel and not wonky (one higher than the other). You can skip this step if you like, but we always feel that a touch of blush on characters give them a particularly sweet and innocent look.
05: You can add a little bit more definition to your cookie by outlining the iced & flooded part of it’s ghostly shape with some white piping consistency royal icing in a piping bag fitted with your size 1 PME Supatube tip.
For your outlining work to really show it’s best to leave your flooded cookies to set or crust for around 30mins to 1 hour before piping on top. This can depend on the humidity of where you live though. Basically, if you pipe wet royal icing onto already or still wet royal icing both will pool or mix into each other. If you pipe wet royal icing onto icing that has crusted or even dried then it will keep it’s own shape.
06: Now you can add tiny little arms by piping thin U shapes underneath the cheeks with more of your piping consistency white royal icing. Those little arms are probably one of our favourite features of these little cuties!
07: With some black piping consistency royal icing in a piping bag fitted with your size 1 PME Supatube tip carefully pipe a little smile on your ghost’s face.
You should, after following this cute ghost cookie tutorial, have one (or several) adorably sweet little ghost sugar cookies gazing up at you ready to party! They look super friendly so we’re pretty sure they’ll go down a treat at the dessert table! Nestle these amongst homemade marshmallows, fluffy cupcakes and bowls of candy for one amazing party selection! You can even bag them up, tie them with matching ribbon and send each off to their own home/tummy!
