Make Halloween cookies using my rich and flavorful chocolate sugar cookies as the starting point. Once your cookies have cooled, have fun decorating them for Halloween using royal icing or an easy glaze icing. Feel free to leave the icing white or tint it festive colors. This post shows many different ways to decorate the cookies based on skill level, so this is definitely something beginners can accomplish too!
Today’s post brings a few published recipes together to show you fun ways for decorating Halloween-themed cookie cutter sugar cookies. The recipe below is my chocolate sugar cookies, which has its own page if you ever want to read more about them. You can, of course, use my plain sugar cookies instead or your own recipe for sugar cookies with these fun decorating ideas! I love these chocolate sugar cookies because they’re flavorful and if you don’t accidentally over-bake them, they’ll remind you of brownies.
Carefully follow the order of steps in the printable recipe below. The dough is sticky and you can use cocoa powder when rolling/handling the dough. (I use it instead of flour for shaped chocolate cookies!) To prevent the cookies from over-spreading, the cookie dough must chill in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough right after you prepare it, and then chill the rolled-out dough. (Because at this point the dough is way too soft to cut into shapes.) Don’t chill the cookie dough and then try to roll it out because it will be too cold and impossible to roll. I divide the dough in half before rolling it out because smaller sections of dough are simply more manageable.
. Let me explain both options and then you can choose which you’d like to use. And, of course, you don’t have to use either if you have another sugar cookie icing you love more!
. You can use the easy cookie icing for these same looks with the exception of the Jack-O-Lantern’s face. (Almost impossible to pipe layers & sharp detail with that glaze icing..
No matter which icing you choose, here are some helpful decorating tools you need. I am not associated with any of these brands—I personally use and love all these items! Some of the following links are affiliate links.
For even more recommendations, see this full list of my favorite cookie decorating supplies.
PS: If you plan to make Halloween cupcakes, you’ll use many of these tools again!
As icing sits in a piping bag before using AND as it dries on a cookie, its color darkens. This is the case with most colors, particularly red and black. When I make black icing, it’s usually blue-ish gray in the bowl and piping bag and then as it dries, it darkens into a black shade. Don’t go overboard on food coloring because the color will deepen as the icing dries.
Yes, absolutely! I am not affiliated with it, but I’ve used the brand Supernatural and they have a line of natural powdered food coloring that’s available in a few colors. You need to dissolve the coloring in a little water before using, so make sure that you very slightly reduce the amount of water needed in either icing recipe. (Note: If you ever need to thicken the icing back up after adding the coloring, you can whisk/beat in a little more confectioners’ sugar.)
Wilton piping tip #4 is my go-to for outlining and flooding:
Yes. You do not need to be an advanced cookie decorator to get started.. Here are some tips if you’re a beginner.
PS: Make a cookie decorating day of it and snack on some Halloween boo bark or Reese’s peanut butter white chocolate bark while you’re hard at work!
This is a recipe for chocolate sugar cookies shaped and decorated for Halloween. You can use either icing recipe linked below or your favorite sugar cookie icing instead.
