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Watercolor Elephant Cookies

ByHani Updated on

Whether you’re planning a baby shower, jungle-themed birthday, wedding, graduation party, or any special occasion, watercolor elephant cookies can help you visually brighten the dessert table and convey a symbolic message along the way.

Decorated sugar cookies on a black plate.

updated from 2018

HOW TO DECORATE WATERCOLOR ELEPHANT COOKIES

ELEPHANT SYMBOLISM

Elephant meanings across different cultures vary, but for many people, these majestic animals embody wisdom, good luck, longevity, prosperity, positivity, happiness, resilience, and strength to face obstacles. Elephants are often referred to as gentle giants with feelings, compassion and self-awareness.

Several decorated cookies displayed on a counter.

SUGAR COOKIES AND ROYAL ICING

You can use any of the cut-out cookie recipes I have listed on my blog to make the elephant cookies. And to decorate, I used royal icing along with edible paints to create a unique, artistic watercolor effect on cookies.

Cookie decorated with icing.

USE A DECORATING TEMPLATE: TRACE OUTLINES ONTO THE COOKIE

Use a cardstock template to trace outlines onto the cookie with an edible marker. Check the section at the bottom of the post for a list of tools and where to get the template.

A cookie with a cardstock template on top of it, hand holding an edible marker, tracing outlines onto the cookie.

FLOOD COOKIES WITH WHITE ICING

First step is to create blank canvas we can paint. Flood the whole cookie with royal icing, use 15-second consistency white icing and outline and flood the cookie. Use a scribe tool to smooth and distribute the icing. Before you can create watercolor effect on royal icing you need let the icing dry overnight (steps 1-8).

Outlining and flooding a cookie with white icing.

HOW TO MAKE EDIBLE WATERCOLOR PAINT FOR COOKIES

Suppose you are not sure about your watercolor design and what colors you want to use. I suggest you browse the internet to see how different color combinations look. You can also look up watercolor themes. For example watercolor mermaid, watercolor Valentine’s day, watercolor Christmas, watercolor wedding, etc.

  • How do you make edible paint? It’s quite simple. Into a food only paint-palette pour few drops of gel food coloring. Then squirt in clear alcohol like Vodka or Everclear/grain alcohol (high proof alcohol). Stir well, discard any gel color residue.
  • We use high-proof alcohol because it evaporates quickly without dissolving sugar in royal icing, which can lead to pitting in icing.
  • You won’t taste the alcohol; however, if you use flavored alcohol or extract; for example McCormick’s Lemon Extract, it will leave a subtle lemon flavor behind, but not alcohol.
Plastic paint palette with edible paint.

HOW TO PAINT SIMPLE WATERCOLOR DESIGN ON ROYA LICING

  • Dip a food-only paintbrush into an edible paint. Load some clear alcohol into a dropper. Use a dropper to wet the area with alcohol lightly, and immediately deposit a little bit of edible paint with a paintbrush onto the area.
  • Work with one color at a time.
  • Don’t add too much extra liquid, little bit goes a long way.
  • What does extra alcohol do? It allows the edible paint to become more diffused and blend with other colors without harsh borders (steps 1-5).
  • If you add too much liquid, you can use a clean paper towel to absorb it.
Cookie iced with white icing, hand holding a paint brush and adding spots of blue onto the icing.

If using multiple colors, continue adding more “spots” of edible paint until you are happy with the results. I created rainbow watercolor elephant cookies using several colors. But you can create beautiful watercolor designs using just two colors. Let the icing dry for several minutes, and then continue with the next step.

Painting a cookie with an array of colors.

PIPE DETAILS

To finish my watercolor elephant cookies, I decided to add decorative details; for these, I used 25-30 second consistency white icing. In hindsight, I think dark-colored icing would show more, but white is very delicate and non-intrusive.

Outline the legs, flood the ear, make the eye and elephant tusk. And after the ear section crusts, you can pipe a dotted border around it.

TIP:  Is your piping little rusty? Use my handy piping templates to practice piping.

Piping details onto the colorful icing.

If you find it hard to pipe details without a piping tip, I recommend using PME piping tip #1.5.

Outlining legs and piping small details with white icing.

Did you make these Decorated Cookies? Tag @hanielas on Instagram and hashtag it #hanielas

Cookies decorated with white icing and painted with edible paint displayed on white background.

MORE DECORATED ANIMAL COOKIES

TO MAKE WATERCOLOR ELEPHANT COOKIES YOU NEED

This post contains Amazon affiliate links that earn me a small commission, at no cost to you. I only recommend products that I use and love. Learn more about my affiliate policy here.

This post was originally published on February 22nd, 2018. On April 21st, 2023 I updated this post with step-by-step pictures and written text.

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