Halloween Decorated Witch's Hat Sugar Cookies
These witch’s hat sugar cookies are crisp, buttery, and decorated with black royal icing and colorful accents. A fun and festive Halloween cookie perfect for parties!
Equipment
- piping bag with a small round tip or a small icing bottle with a small round tip optional, but helpful
- Sifter optional, but helpful
- hat-shaped cookie cutter
Ingredients
Cutout Cookie Base
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
Royal Icing and Decorating
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tsp meringue powder
- 9-10 Tbsp water
- black get food coloring and other colors for accents
Instructions
Bake Witch's Hat Cutout Cookies
- Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla and mix until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and salt, then gradually add it to the wet ingredients. Mix until a soft dough forms.
- Divide the dough in half, flatten into disks, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least an hour (definitely don't skip the chilling!).
- Once chilled, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about ¼ inch thick.
- Use a hat-shaped cookie cutter to cut out shapes and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Bake the cookies for 8–10 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to turn lightly golden. Let cool completely before decorating.
Decorate Hat Cookies
- In a bowl, sift together together the powdered sugar, meringue powder. Then, add water until the icing is smooth and slightly thickened but still fluid. (You’re aiming for a consistency that coats the back of a spoon and slowly runs off—not too thick, not too runny.)
- Divide your icing into however many colors you want. You'll need most of it for the black base and then smaller amounts for any accents and decorations.
- Color your icing (You can cover and set aside the colors other than black for now).
- Decorate the cat cookies.You have two options for icing these cookies—both work great!
- Option 1: The Easy Way (Dipping)Dip each cookie face-down into the black icing. Lift it out, let the excess drip off, then flip and gently shake or tap to level the surface. Use a toothpick or scribe tool to pop any bubbles. This method is fast and great for batch decorating, though a bit messier.
- Option 2: The Pretty Way (Piping)Transfer the black icing to a piping bag or bottle with a small (like the one that looks too small to be true) tip and outline each hat, then flood the center with more icing. Use a toothpick to help fill in gaps and pop any air bubbles.
- Wait for the black icing to mostly dry (about 4 hours) before using your colored icing to add any other decorations. Then, let the cookies fully dry another 6 hours to make sure all of the icing is set.