Monster Face Cookies

Vampires, mummies, zombies, and Frank... Not so hard to decorate on cookies if you stick with simple circles and squares and use store-bought candies and sprinkles.

Step 1: Bake Your Cookies.

Prepare cookie dough (find a sugar cookie recipe HERE, or use your own favorite recipe), chill for two hours, roll out on a floured surface and cut out circles and squares (any size, from 2 to 3-inches across). Bake according to the recipe and let cool.

Step 2: Prepare Your Icing.

To prepare the royal icing, you'll need:

--royal icing recipe
--food coloring (I suggest Americolor Soft Gel Pastes in Red Red, Super Black, Bright White, Electric Green and Electric Purple.
--6 disposable decorating bags
--3 couplers
--4 decorating tips, two of size  "2,"  one of size "3," and one of size "47"
--rubber bands
--scissors

Find decorating bags, couplers and tips at the craft store. Find the food coloring online or in specialty cake decorating store.

Prepare icing according to the recipe, divide and tint red, black, white, green and purple. Prepare three decorating bags with couplers and tips. Fill a bag fitted with a size "2" tip with red, a size "3" tip with black and a size "47" tip with half of your white icing. Set aside the other size "2" tip. Close bags tightly with rubberbands.

Thin the remaining white icing and the green and purple icings with drops of water, stirring well, until the icing is the consistency of thick glue. To test the icing, overturn a spoonful. The icing should disappear into itself in 10 seconds. Fill three empty decorating bags with each of the thinned colors, white, green and purple, and close tightly with rubberbands.

Step 3: Pipe the Outlines.

Use the black icing to pipe outlines on each of the cookies. Then, use the black icing to pipe and fill hair for the vampire and Frankenstein, as shown. Let set about 15 minutes.

Step 4: Fill the Backgrounds.

Snip about 1/8 inch from the tips of the thinned white, green and purple icing bags. Loosely pipe to fill the mummy and dracula cookies with white, Frankenstein with green, and the zombie with purple. Use a toothpick or small knife to encourage the icing, as needed, to fully fill the outlined area. Let the cookies dry well, several hours at least, overnight preferred.

Step 5: Decorate Your Monsters.

To decorate the monster faces, you will need your red, black and white decorating bags fitted with the tips, as prepared in step 2. You'll also need the below from the craft store (note, these items are optional, you may also just pipe decorations with the icing):

--candy eyes
--jumbo confetti sprinkles
--black edible writer
--any color candy melts
--light corn syrup

Use dabs of light corn syrup as glue to adhere candy eyes to the vampires, Frankensteins and mummies.

For the vampire, pipe eyebrows, a nose and a mouth with teeth using the black icing with a size "2" tip. Pipe red icing for blood with a size "2" tip.

For Frankenstein, pipe the scars, nose and mouth with the black icing with a size "2" tip.

For the zombies, instead of candy eyes, adhere a confetti sprinkle and a candy melt, then draw dots for eyes with the black edible writer. For the mummy, use the white with a size "47" tip to pipe the bandages.