I feel that as Americans we get kind of gypped on the whole holiday tradition thing. We’re a melting pot, so our ancestors came over with what little they had and they mashed up any customs they felt like keeping and whatever has been continued on over the generations is what we’re doing today. I’ve always been a little jealous of other countries with there unique traditional clothing and pastimes. I’m particularly fascinated by the hispanic Dia De Los Muertos. I like the idea of celebrating everyone you love who has passed away and I really like that it’s a happy celebration not an occasion for mourning. Flowers and bright colors are a much better way to remember someone in my opinion. I made some Dia de Los Muertos cookies and fear not the celebration doesn’t end until November 2, so you still have time to make some!
I’m just going to show you some pictures with brief descriptions for this tutorial. Get the recipes I used for the cookie dough and the royal icing on this post.
Supplies:
-one batch cookie dough
-one batch royal icing
-Edible Ink markers in a variety of colors
-skull cookie cutter
-disposable bags
1. Bake and cool at least 12 skull cookies. It’s nice to have some extras in case you don’t like the way they turn out
2. Get your royal icing down to the flow consistency described in the post that I linked to up above and dye approximately 1/4 cup of the icing black. Pipe eyes and a nose, using a piping bag with a cut tip. You will see in my picture of all my cookies that I varied the shape of the eyes (some oval, some almond, some round) and the nose (some triangle, some upside down heart and some boomerang(??)). Let the black set for as long as you want before the next step but you need to give it at least 20 minutes. The longer it sets, the less chance the black will bleed into the white of the skull.
3. Pipe around the eyes and nose and an outline close to the edge but with a bit of space so it doesn’t run over.
4. Fill in the rest of the skull with more royal icing, immediately after doing your white outline and gently tap the cookie so that the icing settles together nicely.
5. Let everything dry for at least 18 hours
6. Go crazy with edible markers and your imagination! I used google and Pinterest to find some inspiration to get that Day of the Dead feel for my cookies.
Enjoy and Happy Halloween everyone!
-Rachelle
