DIY Halloween Monster Cookies

How about some more Wilton fun!  In the lovely kit that Walmart and Wilton sent me I not only got the items to make those cool Halloween Cupcakes, but there were also some great cookie supplies and a project sheet showing how to make Halloween Cookie Monsters:

Here’s the kit:
My very most favorite thing?  The eyeball candies!  I mean really–how fun are they?

I just couldn’t stop playing with them and showing them to everyone who came by the house.

Even Buddy couldn’t resist playing with them while I was doing my post photography:

Isn’t he funny?

Anyway, back to the cookie making.  I’ve been wanting to try the technique used to make the nice, smooth frosting on top of these cookies for a long time.  It is called “flooding”.

First you cook your cookies (duh) and then you whip up your frosting.  You need something that will harden up-and to me that means Royal Icing.  Wilton had sent me a jar of their Meringue Powder, which was perfect.  You see, you can make Royal Icing from scratch, but it requires raw egg whites. . .which is a bit icky.  If you use the Meringue powder the icing turns out great every time, sets up smooth and shiny and you don’t have to worry about food poisoning. . .

So I made my icing.  It’s nice and thick as you can see:

Now the first step in the flooding technique is  to make an outline of the area you are going to “flood” or fill in.

(note: so I had to do this all twice, once with white icing and once with orange.  I didn’t realize until I was all done that I took pictures of the orange icing but then took pictures of me actually using the white stuff for the action shots.  Doh!)

This outline needs to go completely around with no breaks, and needs to stay in contact with the top of the cookie.  This is what is going to hold the “flood” layer in!  It’s basically a wall-so make sure you make it nice and puffy and not skinny.

After you’ve done all your outlines, take the rest of the icing you dyed in the original batch (if you try to make two batches they aren’t going to match!) and thin it out some.  I just eyeballed it. . . and made mine a tad bit too thin.  You want to add a very little water at a time, like a tablespoon or so.

Then basically you use another bag and being very careful (since it will run right out of the tip of your bag) you bring it over to your cookies and use your runny icing to “flood” inside the lines.

(Note-you probably want to put wax paper under your work area in case it overflows like mine did.  Oh well–live and learn.)

This is where you have to have some patience.  You now have to let them dry for 24 hours.

Yes, really.  Or at least overnight.  You want that liquidy icing layer to be hard as a rock!  I had reserved out some of the white icing before I made my thinner “flood” icing-I put it in an airtight container and saved it for the next step.  I also saved the leftover orange flood icing because, well, I hate to waste anything.

The next day I took my reserved white Royal Icing and died it black using the black food coloring.  Trust me folks–you want to splurge for the black food coloring. It is impossible to “mix” colors together well enough to make your own black.

I took my fine icing tip and drew eyes and mouths on to the ghosts.  Actually originally this cookie cutter was supposed to be a candy corn, but we are making it into a ghost.

Now the fun part–sticking on those awesome candy eyeballs.  Don’t they just make a world of difference in how the finished ghost looks?

As for the pumpkin cookies I made with the orange icing-you can do a standard Jack ‘o Lantern with them.  But where is the fun in that?

Instead I followed the directions (more or less) on the project sheet and made them into monsters.  Again-the eyeballs make the project.  Seriously.

Buddy claimed the 3 eyed one immediately for his own.

So here are my finished monsters and ghosts next to the Wilton project sheet.  While they aren’t exactly the same, they are pretty close!  And I learned a new skill “Flooding” which I will be able to use on my Christmas cookies this year.

Princess approved of this project! Personally I thought the icing could have used some more flavor-I think next time I’ll use some extracts as part of the “liquid” that goes into the recipe.  Pineapple would be nice!

So have any of you ever made decorated cookies like this for any holiday?  Do you have any tips or experiences to share?

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart & Wilton have provided me with product and compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.