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    Home » All Desserts » By Holiday » Halloween

    Published: Oct 16, 2015 · Modified: Mar 12, 2022 by Claire

    Creating Dimension with Royal Icing

    Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe· 5 from 1 review

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life

    You GUYS! I am SO excited to be writing this tutorial for you! Maybe that seems a little overzealous for an icing tutorial, but I'll tell you why.

    1. I've watched some of my all-time favorite cookie idols like the wonderful Elizabeth of Arty McGoo and Sally of SweetieDoodle create amazing works of cookie art with the most fabulous dimension, and it's always left me scratching my head wondering how the heck they did it! Seriously guys... seriously. Spoiler alert: I scoured the internet and figured it out.
    2. Anyone who knows me well and/or has ever stepped foot into my home during the month of October knows I have a small army, ehm, collection of Halloween figurines. Many of these figurines, including my absolute favorite (sorry guys, I pick favorites), are designed by Johanna Parker.

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life

    So you can imagine how absolutely, ridiculously excited I was when I got in touch with the amazingly talented Johanna Parker to ask if I could use her figurines as the inspiration behind this tutorial and she so graciously agreed!

    Holy guacamole Batman, this tutorial just got real!

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life

    If you're not familiar with Johanna Parker's work (Wait, whaaat?! Go familiarize yourself now! I promise this tutorial will still be here when you get back), you might be wondering why her work. What about it inspired this tutorial... aside from the obvious fact that her work is A-MAZING and I may or may not have just been looking for any excuse to cookie-fy it (in case you're new here, I am aware that "cookie" is technically a noun, and that I may have just verbified it, and also, sometimes I just make up words... like verbify!).

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life

    But the real reason I wanted to use her designs for these cookies: those faces. Seriously, have you seen the faces she creates?! She is the master of whimsical expression and pinchable figurine cheeks. Seriously though, those cheeks. How could I pass up the chance to cookie those adorably pinchable cheeks for HALLOWEEN... AND write a tutorial about it? Obviously the answer is I couldn't.

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life

    Print

    Recipe

    Creating Dimension with Royal Icing

    Learn how to create dimension in your royal icing cookies in this fun Halloween tutorial! | The Simple, Sweet Life
    Print Recipe

    5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

    5 from 1 review

    • Author: The Simple, Sweet Life
    • Category: Tutorial

    Ingredients

    • Cookies (here are a few basic sugar cookie recipes)
    • Royal icing
    • A piping bag
    • Wilton #2 tip
    • A toothpick, skewer, or scribe tool (for moving around the icing)
    • Assorted food-only brushes (for painting)
    • Assorted food gel colors (for painting)
    • Black powdered food coloring
    • Q-tips

    Instructions

    1. The easiest way to go about these cookies, in my opinion, is to use uncolored royal icing for the base, and to paint over it with food gel colors once it hardens. Start with a batch of royal icing with a 20 second consistency. Pipe the base layer of icing, using your toothpick/skewer/scribe tool to work the icing around and fill in any areas that seem to have more or less icing than others. For these cookies, because I was planning on creating a ruffled collar and border around the hat, the face, hat, and round base were the areas I filled in with icing.
    2. Wait 2-4 minutes until a slight crust begins to form over the icing (or about the time it takes you to put down another base layer of icing on another cookie). Now for the fun part! Stick the end of your piping tip directly into the base layer of icing you created 2-4 minutes ago. Yes, you will be breaking the surface of the icing with your tip. Gently squeeze your piping bag, piping icing under the surface of the initial layer of icing. This will create a bubble of new icing under the surface of the old. Be sure to pipe a little extra icing into the bubble as it will naturally shrink a little before it settles. Use this method to create the cheeks.
    3. You can use the same principal to create dimension in other areas of the face, like the brow or chin. If you're working with a larger area, simply work in small areas, piping icing under the surface, removing the tip, and placing it a little farther along to inject more icing.
    4. To create even MORE depth in your cookies, you can apply shading, like in the skeleton cookies above. To do this, use a small, completely dry, food-only brush to gently rub the black powdered food coloring into the dry royal icing. For this part, it helps to think about where shadows would naturally fall on your cookie were it upright, or use a picture for reference. If for some reason you shade it darker than you'd like, you can easily remove the black food coloring with a slightly damp Q-tip. Just moisten it with the Q-tip, and dab it dry with the corner of a paper towel. Note: it's best to do the shading BEFORE you paint the cookie. You'll have a harder time correcting mistakes later if you don't.
    5. And that's it! Now it's just up to you to paint and add all your finishing touches!

    Notes

    Decorating technique adapted from McGoo U

    Did you make this recipe?

    Tag @thesimplesweetlifeblog on Instagram and hashtag it #thesimplesweetlife

     

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

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      Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

    1. Sue says

      October 22, 2015 at 5:21 am

      I love these!!! The expressions are adorable 🙂

      Reply
      • The Simple, Sweet Life says

        October 22, 2015 at 9:38 pm

        I had a great design to work from! But I love their little expressions too. 🙂

        Reply
    2. Lou Lou Girls says

      October 26, 2015 at 9:21 pm

      Yum! They look amazing! Pinned and tweeted. Thank you for being a part of our party! I hope to see you on Monday at 7 pm. We love partying with you! Lou Lou Girls

      Reply
      • The Simple, Sweet Life says

        October 26, 2015 at 10:49 pm

        Thanks so much for the sweet share! 🙂

        Reply
    3. Cindy OKeefe says

      January 21, 2021 at 6:37 pm

      The contouring advise was very helpful and the only one I could find on the net. Thank you so much for graciously sharing it. Now to try it out!!






      Reply
    4. Katy says

      January 30, 2021 at 2:19 pm

      I’ve started to work with cookies, and this is such amazing info!!! Thank you!

      I had to check out JP, her work is amazing!!!

      Reply

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