Fire Horse Cookies

2026 is the year of the Fire Horse. Did you know it’s a super rare moment, as a fire horse year occurs only once every 60 years? And to celebrate this special moment in the Chinese lunar calendar, I made Fire Horse Cookies.

A closed up of decorated cookies on a black tray.

FIRE HORSE COOKIES

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how I created fire horse cookies using two cutters from the Ann Clark Cookie Cutter Collection: the Unicorn and Horse Head cutters. They work beautifully together to create a striking silhouette of a horse with an untamed mane.

FACTS

The last Fire Horse year was in 1966.
It represents unstoppable energy, bold decisions, and ambition.
A symbol of transformation, it signals the closing of old chapters and the beginning of fresh, inspiring opportunities for growth.
Embrace new challenges, learn new things.
Don’t let the fear of the unknown limit your endless potential.

THINGS YOU NEED

Get all the tools and supplies in Haniela’s Amazon Shop
Horse Cutter
Unicorn Cutter
Gel Food Coloring: ivory, red, yellow, orange
Tipless Piping Bags
Scribe Tool
Edible marker: yellow and black
Food-Only Paintbrush
Airbrush
Airbrush Color: red
Stencils
Stencil Holder
Gold Edible Luster Dust Spray Pump and Dry Powder or Premixed Edible Metalic Paint
Flower Transfer Sheets
Star Tip #14, #16 or #18
Horse Head Template

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COOKIE CUTTER

To create this unique shape, I combine two cutters, both from the Clark cookie cutter collection.

Start by rolling out the dough to about 1/4 inch (6mm) thick, then cut out the horse head. Followed by cutting out the mane part of the unicorn. Use the head cutter to trim the unicorn’s mane to fit the back of the horse’s head. Attach a small piece of mane onto the flat end of the horse head, and bake it as instructed in a recipe.

ROYAL ICING COLORS AND CONSISTENCIES

I used royal icing to decorate cookies. You can use standard meringue-based royal icing made with egg whites, vegan icing (using aquafaba), or glaze icing.

White Icing: 20-second consistency (ear, eye, nozzle outline, flower petals), 15-second consistency (head), piping consistency (final outlines, eye outline)
Yellow, Orange, Red: thick consistency (horse fire mane)
Ivory: soft piping consistency (flower outlines)
Red: 20-second consistency (flower petals)

A baked cookie and piping bags with royal icing.

ROYAL ICING TRANSFERS

To prepare royal icing transfers, start by printing the template. Insert the template into a smooth transparent protector sheet and secure it to a firm surface. I used a plexiglass.
Pipe daisy-like shapes directly on the transparent sheet, following the outline using ivory soft piping consistency.
Pipe each pedal, and immediately after, dust it generously with gold luster dust using a spray pump.
Then, using red or white icing of 20-second consistency, fill each pedal, starting at the outer curved edge.
Pipe a full dot, then slowly move the icing towards the tapered end. Decrease the pressure on the piping Bag as you come towards the tapered end.
Try using piping as a ‘scribe’ dip the tip into the icing and use it to slowly drag the icing to the point.
Let transfers dry for 8 to 12 hours before removing them from the acetate sheet
Learn more about royal icing transfers, how to make them, and use them in my Ultimate Guide to Royal Icing Transfers.

TEMPLATE AND PIPING GUIDES

Use a handy cardstock template or eyeball it – transfer eye outline onto a cookie using a black marker. If the eye opening appears too small, make it slightly bigger.
Draw the eye with an edible marker (steps 1-3).
Mix dry edible luster dust powder with Everclear or clear Vodka. Paint the nostril with edible gold luster dust paint (steps 4-5).
Use a yellow edible marker to draw the ear guide (step 5).g

Drawing outlines onto a cookie with an edible marker.

FLOOD WITH ICING

Outline the ears, eye, and the nostril with 20-second consistency icing, let the icing crust.
And then fill the ear with about 15 to 20 seconds of consistency icing, let the ear crust (step 2), then pipe the adjacent ear, and let both ears crust again (step 3) before flooding the whole cookie with 15-second consistency icing (step 4).
Allow icing to dry for 8 hours.

AIRBRUSHING

Secure your stencil in a stencil holder, then lightly airbrush the white icing to transfer a beautiful pattern onto the cookie.
Go light on the trigger on your airbrush gun.
Immediately, while the surface is lightly damp from the airbrush food coloring, spray it with gold luster dust using a spray pump.

Cookies decorated with white icing, with a light airbrushed pattern.

PAINT EARS

Using gold edible luster dust paint and a fine liner paintbrush, paint the inside of the ears.

ROYAL ICING FIRE FLAMES

To make fiery horse mane pipe yellow, orange, and red icing onto the food wrap.
Pipe the yellow in the middle, orange on the sides, and red on one side of the orange.
Close the pouch/icing bullet. Tie one end. Trim the opposite end and insert it into a piping bag fitted with a star tip #14 or #16.

A pouch with red, orange and yellow icing.

A royal icing pouch with yellow, orange and red icing.

Pipe short lines of curved icing on the mane area.
When starting the flame line, squeeze the piping bag to let the icing come out, and move the piping bag slightly forward to tuck the line under, and continue towards the outer edge of the cookie (steps 1-3).

PIPED DETAILS

Now we’re going to add piped details with piping consistency white icing.
Using light pressure piping, pipe a line above the eye to accentuate the eye, and also make a small dot in the middle of the eye cavity (steps 1-2).
Then outline the cookie, starting at the top by the ears, moving around to the nostrils, and ending in the middle, separating the head from the neck (steps 3-4).

Piping details on top of the smooth icing.

EMBELLISH WITH TRANSFERS

For a softer finishing touch, you can use delicate daisy-style royal icing transfers we made earlier.
Use tweezers to handle the transfer.
Pipe a small dot of icing onto the cookie to attach the flower.

Attaching a sugar decoration on a cookie.

Decorated cookies with royal icing in a shape of a horse.

FIRE HORSE COOKIES VIDEO TUTORIAL

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