Halloween Sugar Cookies
These super cute Halloween sugar cookies are made by topping soft cut-out sugar cookies with royal icing. There are so many ways to decorate your sugar cookies, but I’ve shared the exact steps and tools I used to make candy corn, ghost, bat, pumpkin, and witches hat cookies!
These Halloween sugar cookies might just be the most adorable treat I’ve baked all year!
The base is a super simple, no-chill sugar cookie dough that rolls and cuts like a dream. Once you’ve cut out the dough using your favorite Halloween cookie cutters, the cookies are baked and allowed to cool completely before being iced.
This is a flexible recipe that works with a variety of sugar cookie recipes (I included a few more options in the post), and the royal icing could even be swapped with buttercream frosting.
I’m also sharing my favorite piping tips, cookie cutters, and the easy method I use to cut out sugar cookie dough!
What You Need
Sugar Cookie Dough
I used my cut-out sugar cookie recipe because it doesn’t have to be chilled and can be rolled out and baked right away. If you’re craving a different flavor, you could use my chocolate cut-out sugar cookies or pumpkin sugar cookies instead.
Icing
I prefer to use royal icing for this recipe because it’s better for adding more details to the cookies. If you’re newer to decorating cookies, this easy sugar cookie icing is a great alternative!
Gel Food Coloring
You will need black, orange, yellow, and green food coloring. I highly recommend using gel food coloring because it won’t thin out the icing or make it runny. AmeriColor is my personal favorite brand!
Tools
Here are the cookie cutters that I used. I love this set because it comes with several different Halloween-inspired shapes so you can make a few different designs. You’ll also need a rolling pin, piping bags, and small round piping tips which I’ll talk about more below.
The Best Way To Roll The Dough & Cut It Out
In my experience, the easiest way to roll out sugar cookie dough is to flour it lightly on both sides and place it between two pieces of parchment paper. This allows you to roll out the dough smoothly without it sticking to your rolling pin. It also makes it super easy to transfer the dough to the fridge if you need to chill it!
When it comes to cutting out the shapes, lightly dusting the cookie cutters with some flour will keep them from sticking to it. If you’re having trouble removing the excess cookie dough around the shapes, you can use a toothpick to gently lift it away.
Quick Tip: If you find it difficult to roll your dough evenly or to the correct thickness, I highly recommend keeping some ¼-inch dowel rods on hand. I place one on each side of the dough, then roll it out until my rolling pin touches the top of the dowel rods. An adjustable rolling pin also works great for this!
Preparing & Coloring The Icing
As I mentioned earlier, royal icing is my go-to for decorating these cookies. I prefer to mix mine to a medium consistency so that I can use it for both outlining and flooding the cookies (I explain more about the different consistencies in my royal icing recipe).
To tell if your royal icing has reached a medium consistency, lift some up from the mixing bowl with a spoon and drizzle it back in. The drizzle of icing should take a full 15 seconds to dissolve back into the bowl of icing – that’s how you know it’s reached the perfect consistency!
Remember to divide the icing between five different bowls before coloring. After mixing in the food coloring, you can transfer each batch of icing to separate piping bags fitted with small round piping tips and start decorating!
I like to use the Wilton #3 piping tip, but the Wilton #4 works well too. For finer, more detailed work, the Wilton #2 and #1 are good options.
Tips For Decorating Your Cookies
- Let the cookies cool completely. Piping royal icing onto a warm sugar cookie will just make a mess! If you want to save a little time, you can make the cookies a day or two in advance.
- Outline first, then flood the middle. I also like to use a toothpick to maneuver the icing to get it to reach any spots that I missed with the piping tip.
- Let the icing harden before adding the details. Decorations like the yellow bat eyes and the buckle on the witch’s hat are best added after the base layer of icing has hardened. If you want the icing to kind of melt together (like with the ghost’s eyes and mouth), you can go ahead and add those details while the icing is still wet.
- Add sprinkles right away. They’ll only adhere to the icing when it’s wet.
More Decorating Ideas
- Bat: Use the white icing to add fangs. You can also replace the yellow icing eyes with candy eyeballs or a different color of icing.
- Witches Hat: I used green icing for the belt, but you could easily use a different color!
- Ghost: Feel free to use candy eyeballs, or make a little bit of pink icing to add blushing cheeks.
- Pumpkin: Use some of the black icing to add jack-o-lantern details.
- Candy Corn: Coat each section with the same color of sanding sugar for added texture and a sparkly effect.
I can’t get over how cute these cookies turned out! They would be so fun to decorate with kids or at a cookie decorating party too!
If you try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment below to let me know how they turned out. Happy Baking!
Halloween Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour spooned & leveled (375 grams)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup vegetable shortening (190 grams; I used Crisco)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons whole milk (30 ml)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Royal icing or easy sugar cookie icing
- Gel food coloring (black, orange, yellow, and green)
Instructions
- To make the cookies: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two to three large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.3 cups all-purpose flour,2 teaspoons baking powder,½ teaspoon salt
- In a separate large mixing bowl using an electric mixer, mix the shortening and sugar together for 1 to 2 minutes or until well combined. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla extract and mix until fully combined, making sure to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.1 cup vegetable shortening,1 cup granulated sugar,1 large egg,2 tablespoons whole milk,2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until fully combined. The mixture will be a little crumbly at first, but it will come together as you continue mixing it. Once the dough comes together, use your hands to form it into a ball.
- Divide the dough in half. Lightly flour a piece of parchment paper, add half of the dough, top with another piece of parchment paper, and roll the dough to ¼-inch thick between both pieces of parchment paper. Repeat with the other half of the dough between two separate pieces of parchment paper. (This dough doesn’t require any dough chilling, but if you prefer colder dough so that it’s easier to work with you can place both pieces of rolled out dough between the parchment paper on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes to one hour.)
- Peel off the top layer of parchment paper. Using 3 to 4 inch Halloween cookie cutters, cut the cookie dough into shapes and place them onto the prepared baking sheets, making sure to leave a little room between each one. If the cut out dough is difficult to pick up, lightly flour a thin spatula and use that to transfer the cut out cookies to the baking sheet. Re-roll any scrap pieces of dough between the parchment paper and continue cutting out shapes. Repeat with the other sheet of cookie dough.
- Bake for 10 to 13 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are set and the bottom edges are lightly browned. I prefer to bake mine between 12 to 13 minutes, so they’re slightly crisper – the icing will soften them some!
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets for 5 to 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Prepare the icing: For these cookies, I used my royal icing recipe and beat it to a medium consistency so I could use it to outline and flood the cookies all at once. If you want an easier icing, my easy sugar cookie icing will work too. If you use my easy sugar cookie icing, I recommend making it thick enough so you can use it to outline and flood the cookies all at once.Royal icing or easy sugar cookie icing
- Divide and color the icing: If you plan to use a few different colors of icing, divide the icing between several different bowls and add gel food coloring. I divided about ¾ of my icing between three larger bowls, left one white, tinted one with black, and the other one with orange gel food coloring. I divided the last ¼ of the icing between two smaller bowls and tinted one with yellow and the other with green food coloring. At this point I also recommend checking the consistency of your icing again. If the icing is too thick, you can add a little water to thin it out. If it’s too thin, you can add a bit more powdered sugar to thicken it.Gel food coloring
- Once all of the icing is colored and prepared, distribute it between piping bags with your desired piping tip. I personally prefer to use the Wilton #3 piping tip! If you still have some icing in bowls that you are not using, make sure to cover it with a damp paper towel until you’re ready to use it to prevent it from hardening.
- To decorate the cookies: Outline each cookie with the icing, then fill the cookie with a thin layer of icing. Use a toothpick or scribe to move the icing around and fill in any empty spots. If needed, gently tap or shake the cookie to help the icing settle in a smooth layer. If adding any sprinkles, go ahead and add them as soon as you ice each cookie. Here’s how I decorated my cookies:Bat Cookies: Outline and fill them with black icing, wait until the icing dries some, then add the detail to the wings and the eyes.Witches Hat: Outline and fill the black portions of the hat, then add the green stripe across it. Wait for the icing to harden some before adding the yellow buckle and sprinkles.Ghost: Outline and fill with white icing, then add the black eyes and mouth while the icing is still wet (this allows them to blend together!).Pumpkin: Start by outlining and filling in the orange parts on each side, then go back and fill in the middle portion. Add the green top and any leaf decorations, if you prefer. You can also just outline and fill the cookie all at once with orange icing, then add some black details for jack-o-lantern cookies.Candy Corn: Outline and fill each color, starting with white at the smaller end, orange in the middle, and yellow at the larger end.
- Once you’ve iced all of the cookies let them dry at room temperature for several hours or until the icing has hardened. The amount of time this can take will vary depending on how large your cookies are, how much icing you’re using, and the amount of airflow. To be safe, I prefer to let my cookies dry overnight before stacking them.
