Black Cat Cookies

These little black cat decorated cookies are the CUTEST and just perfect for Halloween next week!

I was absolutely thrilled when my friend, Bridget, sent me a copy of her new book, Decorating Cookies: 60+ Designs for Holidays, Celebrations & Everyday. I met Bridget last summer when we both traveled to Oregon to visit with Harry & David. She is just as sweet and nice as you can imagine by reading her blog, and I’m so proud of her because her book is, well, pretty amazing. Not that I would expect anything less!

I feel like I need to preface this post by saying up front that I am NOT a cookie decorator.

Nope…not me.

I’m not coordinated, graceful or tidy. Instead, I’m clumsy and messy. My kitchen usually looks like a bomb went off in it. Despite going through pastry and baking school, my talent does not lie with beautifully decorated cookies and cakes. I’m more of a sink-my-hands-into-a-big-pile-of-bread-dough type of gal. Many times, I catch people staring at me at the grocery store because I’ll have dough stuck in my hair and chocolate stains on my shirt. Yep, that’s me!

So what I’m saying is this: if I can decorate these cookies, you can, too. Trust me.

Naturally, I picked little black cat cookies because of my main furball squeeze, Dexter. He was so excited!

The cookie is just a very simple sugar cookie cut out in Halloween cat shapes. I ordered this little cookie cutter off Amazon last week for the project!

In her book, Bridget explains how to decorate the cats with very easy to comprehend directions and photos. Even though it might seem complicated, she really does a great job with breaking down each step so you don’t get confused. I also loved how she gave the tip of freezing the cookie dough after cutting out the cat shapes for five minutes. Freezing the dough helps reduce the spread in the oven and made them much easier to handle!

After the cookies came out of the oven, I tinted my royal icing black {here’s the food coloring brand I used} and outlined the cats with the icing. Then, I thinned the icing with a little warm water and filled them in with more icing.

Seriously, it was so simple. This was my first time making legit decorated cookies and even though I sort of feel like they look like black llamas with collars, I’m pretty happy with the result. Almost too cute to eat!

It goes without saying that Dexter liked them, too.

I brought a plate next door to my neighbor who looks after Dexter when I’m out of town. She got a kick out of them! I think they’d be perfect for any Halloween party or just to decorate with your kids next week. Bridget reminded me that cookie decorating isn’t just for Christmas and I got a lot of great, fun ideas from her book that I can’t wait to try.

Black Cat Cookies

from Decorating Cookies: 60+ Designs for Holidays, Celebrations & Everyday

Print this Recipe!

Ingredients:

for sugar cookies —

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 cup (2 sticks) cold salted butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup sugar

1 egg

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract {I’m going to say that this is option because I didn’t add it and the cookies were still delicious!}

for the royal icing —

1/2 cup meringue powder

1 scant cup water

32 oz powdered sugar

2 tsp light corn syrup {I used honey instead and it turned out great!}

black food coloring

green food coloring

orange food coloring

special tools —

#1 pastry tip, #2 pastry tip, two plastic pastry bags, 1 plastic squeeze bottle, toothpick, cat shaped cookie cutter

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with either parchment paper or a Silpat. Set aside.

Whisk the flour and baking powder together in a medium bowl. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and extracts and beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients, one cup at a time, and mix only until a soft dough has formed.

Roll dough out to approximately 1/4″ thick. Cut cat shapes out of dough and place on a plate. Stick the plate in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Then, peel the cold cookies off the plate and place on the lined baking sheet.

Bake cookies for 9-12 minutes.

Repeat with remaining dough —- cutting cats out then freezing for five minutes before baking. Let all cookies cool completely before decorating!

Now, make the royal icing. In the bowl of a KitchenAid mixer, beat together the meringue powder and water together until bubbly. Slowly add the powdered sugar while the mixer is on the lowest possible speed. Add the corn syrup {or honey} and continue beating on low speed for five minutes. Crank speed to medium high and beat for another 5 minutes until stiff glossy peaks form. Be careful here because it’s possible to overbeat the frosting, which will cause it to go dull. You want it to still be very glossy and fluffy.

Scoop small amounts of icing into three separate small bowls. Add black food coloring to one, orange to the next and green to the final bowl. Mix well.

Fit your #2 tip into a pastry bag and scoop a small amount of black frosting into the bag. VERY SLOWLY trace the frosting around the edges of the cat cookies to form a thin black outline. Repeat with remaining cookies until they are all outlined.

Add about a tablespoon of warm water to the remaining black frosting in the small bowl. Mix well, adding more warm water if necessary, to form an icing that is the same consistency of thick syrup. When you hold up your spoon, it should be a steady stream of icing and not break. This will be your icing that you will use to fill in the cats with. Pour icing into your plastic squeeze bottle and fit the top on tightly. Fill in the cats carefully with this. Then, set them aside to dry for at least an hour.

When the cats are dry, it’s time to make the collars. Scoop some orange icing into another pastry bag with your #1 tip. Gently squeeze a thin line of orange icing around the neck of each cat.

Use toothpicks dipped in the green icing to make eyes if you like!

Time:

2 hours

**this recipe makes a TON of royal icing. I recommend cutting it in half!