Sugar cookies with royal icing designed after the peaceful and quirky Mr. Saturns from EarthBound.

From the Earthbound Wiki - "They are characterized by huge noses, four whiskers, and a single hair with a small red bow. They are generally very peaceful and generous, offering free stays at the hotel and coffee."

Fun little guys. Here's how to create them in cookie format!

Step 1: Gather the Ingredients and Equipment

Ingredients:

    Sugar cookie dough
    ~2 tablespoons flour for dusting
    Edible black food marker
    Copper / fleshtone food coloring
    Mauve / pink food coloring
    Red food coloring

    For the royal icing - batch one:
    2 cups powdered sugar
    2 tablespoons meringue powder
    ~1/4 cup water

    Royal icing - batch two (it's a very tiny batch):
    1/2 cup powdered sugar
    1 teaspoon meringue powder
    Few drops of water

Equipment:

    Sealable plastic bags
    Toothpicks
    3/4" round cookie cutter
    1 1/2" round cookie cutter
    2 1/2" round cookie cutter

The cookie cutters don't need to be exact, but you'll want roughly the same proportions.

For the sugar cookie dough I used a tube of the stuff, but using your favorite sugar cookie recipe would be an even bigger treat. The royal icing measurements are designed for a dozen cookies, so if you find yourself with way more cookies, you’ll want to adjust the measurements accordingly.

Step 2: Create the Cookies

Preheat oven to 350°F!

Dust down some flour and roll out the dough so it’s about 1/4″ thick. Cut out a large circle shape, a medium circle shape, and two small circle shapes. This makes for one Mr. Saturn. Repeat until you run out of cookie dough.

On a cookie sheet, take a large circle shape and press two smaller circles near each other to create the feet. Repeat for until all the feet are attached.

Place the medium circle shapes on another cookie sheet.

Bake for about 6 minutes for the medium circles, and about 8 minutes for the larger cookies. When they’re golden brown, take out of the oven and allow to cool.

Step 3: Make the Royal Icing

For the royal icing, mix together the meringue powder, powdered sugar, and water. You’ll want the icing thick enough so that a thread of icing will stay on the surface for a few seconds. If it’s too thick, add a few drops of water.

Mr. Saturns have a pinkish tone, so I added a few drops of mauve food coloring to the royal icing. Add a few drops of copper food coloring and mix.

Step 4: Ice the Cookies

Once colors are fully incorporated, scoop the icing into the plastic bag. Seal the bag, and snip off one of the corners.

Grab one of the big cookies and a smaller cookie. Add a dab of royal icing onto the big cookie and put smaller cookie on top, creating the nose.

Cover the nose in royal icing, followed by the feet and the head, leaving some space around the top of the cookie.

Use a toothpick to smooth out any edges.

Allow to dry for a few hours. Overnight is even better.

Step 5: Add Face Details

Once the royal icing is dry, draw on two whiskers on each side of the nose.

Add the two eyes and the giant blocky eyebrows.

Drawing directly on the cookie, add a single top hair.

Repeat for all cookies.

Step 6: Create the Red Bows

Combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and add a tiny bit of water for batch number two of the royal icing. You don’t need very much at all as we’ll just be doing small bows. You’ll also want the royal icing to be pretty thick so it doesn’t run.

Add the red food coloring and mix.

Scoop the red royal icing into a sealable bag. Seal and snip off a tiny corner.

Draw a triangle on one side of the top hair.

Do the same on the other side, using a toothpick to nudge into place if need be.

If you don’t have a lot of room for the bow, just put it at the very top. The bow is very important to Mr. Saturns.