How to Make Cute Ghost Cookies

Halloween is the perfect time to have a little fun in the kitchen, and these cute ghost cookies are just the treat! Add in some tiny bat, cat, and spiderweb cookies, and you’ve got a festive set everyone will adore.

A view from above, several decorated cookies on a kitchen counter.

CUTE GHOST COOKIES STEP-BY-STEP

In this step-by-step tutorial, I’ll walk you through how to decorate easy-to-make, cute ghost cookies using white and black icing. To make them even more festive, I decided to embellish them with Halloween favorites: bats, cats, and spiderwebs.

A view from the above, piping bag with icing, undecorated cookie and decorated cookies.

THINGS YOU NEED

Get all the tools and supplies in Haniela’s Amazon Shop
Ghost Cookie Cutter
Mini Cookie Cutters: cat, bag, round, or star
Gel Food Coloring: black,
Tipless Piping Bags
Scribe Tool
Edible marker – yellow
Edible Pink or Red Petal Dust
Food-Only Paintbrush

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COOKIE CUTTER

I used this cutter shape in the past for another Halloween cookie project. It sort of reminds me of Pac-Man Ghost. What do you think? Mini cutters are fun to use as filler cookies in cookie platters, and attaching them to the ghosts makes them even cuter!

Undecorated cookies alongside two piping bags and small cookies.

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.

Black Icing: 20-second consistency (eye, bats, cat, cobweb)
White Icing: 15-second consistency

FLOOD GHOSTS

Use an edible marker to draw the outlines for the eyes (step 1)
Pipe the eye outlines with 15-second consistency white icing.
Let the outlines crust for 5 minutes (step 2).
Then outline and flood the whole cookie with 15-second consistency white icing. Use your scribe tool to distribute the icing across the cookie (steps 4-8).

To create some shading on the side of the ghost, use either light gray icing or a touch of black, and marble it into the white icing using a palette knife (steps 1-3).
While the icing is wet, make the mouth with black icing of 15-second consistency (step 4-5).
Let the icing crust for about 30 minutes before making the eyes.

Marbling white icing with gray, using a petal knife.

GHOST EYES

To make the eyes use 20-consistency black royal icing.
Pipe the icing into the cavities and immediately add white reflection details (step 1-2).
Start with a large reflection dot. Drop the white dot onto the black icing, and with the tip of the scribe tool, shape the dot into a teardrop shape (steps 3-8).

Making royal icing eye with black and white icing.

Then, to make smaller reflection dots under the teardrop shape reflection, use your scribe tool and pick up a small amount of icing straight from a piping bag and place it directly under the teardrop reflection (steps 1-6).

Creating white reflection dots on black eye with royal icing.

Alternatively, you can pipe a small amount of white icing on parchment (step 1).
Dip the tip of the scribe tool into the white icing and make the reflection dots in the black icing (step 2-4).
Let the icing dry for 8-12 hours.

A detail of a scribe tool picking up a small amount of icing.

PINK BLUSH

Use an edible pink petal dust and a food-only paintbrush to apply dust onto the cheeks (steps 1-2).
Use a circular motion to spread the dust onto the dry icing (step 3).
Remove the excess with an empty decorating bottle or a rubber air duster (steps 4-6).

BLACK CAT COOKIES

To decorate the cat, use 20-second consistency black icing.
Outline and flood the cat with black icing, using your scribe tool to smooth the icing evenly (steps 1-3).
Immediately pipe two white dots for the eyes and shape the eyes with the scribe tool while the icing is wet (steps 4-6).
Pipe a small black dot in the middle of each white eye (steps 7-8).
Let the icing dry.

BAT COOKIES

Outline and flood the bat cookie with 20-second consistency icing (steps 1-4).
Make the eyes with 20-second consistency white icing (steps 5-6).

A mini bat cookie decorated with black icing.

SPIDERWEB MINI COOKIES 🕸️

If you don’t have a mini star cookie cutter, you can also use a round cutter to make the cobweb cookies.
Start by outlining and filling the cookie with white icing (step 1).
Then immediately pipe concentric circles and run the ascribe tool through the circles (step 2).
Start in the middle of the cookie and move the scribe tool towards the edge of the cookie, making a cobweb pattern (steps 3-4).

GHOST COOKIE ASSEMBLY 👻

Combine everything into a spooky-cute ghost cookie set.
Glue mini cookies onto the ghost cookies (steps 1-8).
Use a small amount of icing on the back of the mini cookie and glue it onto the ghost.
Apply a light back-and-forth movement to the mini cookie to make it flush with the surface of the ghost cookie.

Attaching small cookies onto a large cookie.

Two rows of cookies displayed on a gray marbled background.

CUTE GHOST COOKIES VIDEO TUTORIAL

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