Day of the Dead Cupcake Cookies

Today I’m going to show you how you can make simple decorated Day of the Dead Cupcake Cookies. Don’t have a skull cookie cutter? Use a cupcake shape instead.

Decorated cupcake cookies that look like skulls.

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HOW TO MAKE DAY OF THE DEAD CUPCAKE COOKIES

COOKIE CUTTER

If you can’t find a day of the dead skull cookie cutter you can use a cupcake shape instead. Cupcake shapes makes these iced skull cookies cute and kid friendly, too.

ROYAL ICING COLORS AND CONSISTENCY :

White – 15 second consistency

DECORATING STEPS :

Outline and flood the whole cupcake cookie with white royal icing (15sec). Use a needle tool to distribute the icing evenly over the surface of the cookies. Let the icing dry before moving onto the next step. Drying can take up to 6 – 7 hours.

Flooding cupcake cookie with white icing.

AIRBRUSHING

To make decorating with royal icing a breeze first I used a simple airbrushing technique.

I hand cut a card stock stencil with an exacto knife. Then I covered my magnetic baking sheet with a paper towel. I anchored my stencil onto a magnetic baking sheet with several magnets. I find that width of the 2 magnets equals the thickness of the cookie. Place the stencil directly over the cookie. You want the stencil to sit snugly on the cookie.

I used red and blue airbrush color to airbrush my cookies. Get creative and use other colors if you wish. Let the airbrushed color dry for 10-15 minutes.

Airbrushing cookie with card stock template.

EDIBLE MARKER

Here comes the fun part. Take a black edible marker and draw the outlines on the airbrushed shapes. This will give your design more dramatic look once it’s all finished.

COLORFUL PIPING WITH ROYAL ICING

ROYAL ICING COLORS AND CONSISTENCY :

Orange, Yellow, Purple, Electric Green – piping consistency
White – 20 second consistency – to make the teeth

DECORATING STEPS :

With colored royal icing (piping consistency) pipe the flower outlines, hearts, outline the mouth. Pipe swirls and dots. Have fun with it. To make the teeth use white icing (20sec). Let the icing dry.

Piping nose, swirls and hearts with royal icing on a cupcake cookie.

STORAGE

Store decorated cookies in an airtight container layered between pieces of parchment paper. Or package cookies in poly bags. If possible use a heat sealer to seal them. Or tie them with a ribbon.

Decorated day of the dead cupcake cookie displayed on a black plate.

TO MADE DAY OF THE DEAD CUPCAKE COOKIES YOU NEED

RECIPES
Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
Royal Icing, Vegan Royal Icing
TOOLS
Cupcake Cookie Cutter – this design and stencil is adaptable to most cupcake cookie cutters
Cupcake Skull Stencil
Exacto Knife
Card Stock or Stencil Blanks(mylar material)
Food Colors – orange, red, yellow, electric green
Edible Marker
Piping Bags
Needle Tool
Airbrush
Airbrush Color – blue, red
RELATED TUTORIALS
Ultimate Guide to Royal Icing Consistency
How to Freeze Royal Icing
Freezing Cookies

MORE DAY OF THE DAY BAKING IDEAS :

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Royal icing decorated cupcake skull cookies on a black plate.

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