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If you're anything like me, you love the look of decorated cookies but just don't have the patience or time to make elaborate decorated cookies. My easy Halloween ghost sugar cookies tutorial is just for you. These ghosts cookies are perfect for a beginner or someone who doesn't enjoy piping (Hi, that's me. Super shaky hands here.) You only need one color of royal icing, and you can use any sugar cookie you wish, but I think these cookies look and taste especially awesome using my black cocoa sugar cookie recipe.
Black Cocoa Sugar Cookies
These cookies taste like Oreo's, legit. The cookie itself isn't super sweet, and the black cocoa is the dominate flavor, much like an Oreo. Most of my sugar cookie recipes tend to not have a whole lot of sugar, because most of the time a sugar based icing will be on top. The full recipe and details on baking these cookies can be found on my Black Cocoa Sugar Cookies + Decorated Pumpkins Tutorial post.
I didn't have a ghost cookie cutter, so I used a large tear drop shape cutter.
I pinch the tapered end of the dough, and shaped it to give it more of a "tail", like a little swoopy ghost shape.
If you don't have a tear drop cutter, you can also just cut out tear drop shaped cookies using a small knife or exacto knife. They don't have to be identical, you can use your fingers to shape the cookie the way you want it to look.
Royal Icing
I decorated the cookies with my go-to royal icing. My royal icing is a bit unique because it contains corn syrup, which gives the icing a bit of shine when it dries, but also gives it a bit more elasticity when when piping. Additionally, it helps the royal icing to be a bit softer and not as rock hard when it’s dried.
I used the same icing consistency (15-20 second icing) to outline and fill in my cookies. Then, thin out stiff royal icing with a few drops of water at a time until a toothpick or spatula that is ran through the icing creates a line that fills up and flattens out within 15-20 seconds. For this consistency, the icing has to be thin enough to flow, while remaining thick enough that it doesn’t fall off the side of the cookie.
Decorating the ghost cookies
I used a #2 round tip to pipe my icing.
First outline the shape of the eyes and mouth. I chose to do more oval shaped eyes and a round mouth. None of my cookies are identical because that was my preference, but you can make them as similar as you would like.
If it's easier for you to have a guide to pipe your eyes and mouth, use a scribe tool, and etch the shapes onto the cookie before piping.
After outlining the eyes and the mouth, pipe a border around the perimeter of the cookies.
Use the same icing bag and piping tip, and fill in the cookie with the icing.
Use a scribe tool or a toothpick to even out the icing, and pop any air bubbles. Additionally, I like to sort of wiggle my cookie back and forth on my work surface so that the icing natural evens out.
Remember, you can always scrape off wet/semi-wet royal icing and start over. I hope you enjoy this easy Halloween ghost sugar cookies tutorial! If you make these ghost cookies or any decorated cookies with my black cocoa sugar cookie recipe, tag me on Instagram. I love seeing what you guys create.
For more Halloween tutorials, check out these posts:
Bloody Rose Halloween Cake Tutorial
Halloween Rice Paper Ghost Tutorial
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