Merry, Merry, friends! I'm sorry for posting these cookies so close to Christmas, but I couldn't resist sharing them with you--better late than never, perhaps? We've certainly been cookie-ing more than normal this year, and I really wanted to make some decorated cookies for my cakelets' teachers, so this is what we came up with: super-cute-and-slightly-sauced-looking-Santa paired with his fancy-but-adorable reindeer. The things Christmas cookie dreams are made of, we think.
The reindeer are simple white and gilded and their big pink candy noses are super-cute. I came across a few gilded antler deer cookies on Pinterest and I loved the idea, because the sweetness of the reindeer's face paired with the elegance of the gold antlers is
a perfect holiday cookie, in my opinion. An ideal New Year's cookie too!
We went for a "cute" Santa as well, because I'm convinced that cute cookies are always irresistible and possibly more fun to make than even the fanciest of designs. For Santa I used the design on the cutter box for
inspiration, but gave him teeny, tiny eyes and shiny pink nose,
which makes us giggle (too many rum & eggnogs, Santa?), and of course a poofy moustache, just 'cause. We used
The Perfect Gingerbread Cookie recipe I posted awhile ago--some with the more mild fancy molasses, and some with the darker cooking molasses--because one thing about classic gingerbread men that my cakelets always point out is they just don't have enough icing. They
LOVE royal icing (I think everyone does, really), and these frosted delights did the trick.
For our Santa and reindeer shapes, I used my Meri Meri Jingle All The Way Cutters (I'm obsessed), which really inspired me to create these cookies at all. Of course you can use any Santa or deer/reindeer cutters you may have or come across. I think this would work well on many different styles. What holiday cookies did you create this year? Okay, so let's make these cookies! The girls and I are actually making another round of these on Christmas Day, to bring to our family gathering a few days later. Can't wait!
Gilded Reindeer and Santa Cookies
- 1 recipe The Perfect Gingerbread Cookie
- 2 recipes Royal Icing
- AmeriColor gel paste colours in Gold (Super Red)
- Food marker in black
- Luster Dust in gold
- Sixlets in Pink (for the reindeer noses)
- Candy beads in pink (for Santa's nose)
- Petal Dust in pink or red (for Santa's cheeks)
- White nonpareils (for Santa's pom pom)
You will also need:
- Disposable medium-sized pastry bags
- Couplers
- Pastry tips #3 (20)
- 2 food-safe small paint brushes
- Roll out the cookie dough using the santa and reindeer cutters, and bake according to recipe. Let cool completely. Prepare the Royal Icing and keep well-covered with plastic wrap.
- Tint about 1 1/2 cups of icing gold using using AmeriColor gold gel paste. Add a few drops of water and stir until the icing flows with a 10-second consistency (a line run through the icing with a knife with disappear in 10-seconds). Fill a pastry bag fitted with a coupler and #3 pastry tip with about 3/4 cup of gold icing and cover the remaining gold icing with plastic wrap. Pipe the antlers on each reindeer.
- Use the black food marker to outline the shape of Santa's face on each cookie. Add a drop of red gel paste to the remaining gold icing to create a skin-tone icing. Add the icing to another pastry bag fitted with a coupler and another #3 tip, and outline and fill each Santa face using the black marker outline as your guide.
- Fill another two-thirds full with pastry bag fitted with a #3 tip with 10-second consistency white icing and outline and fill the entire reindeer below the antlers. Let dry completely, overnight if possible.
- Use the same white icing to outline and fill Santa's beard and rim of his hat. Let dry completely, overnight if possible. Reserve the remaining royal icing and keep covered with plastic wrap.
- Once the cookies are dry, tint about 1 cup of 10-second icing red and fill another pastry bag fitted with a #3 tip no more than two-thirds full. Outline and fill Santa's hat and let dry.
- Mix a small amount of the gold luster dust with clear extract or vodka, and use a food-safe paint brush to paint the reindeer antlers. Use the black food marker to draw on the reindeer's eyelashes and Santa's eyes.
- Use another small food-safe paint brush to dust on a very tiny bit of red or pink petal dust onto Santa's cheeks.
- Use the thicker, un-thinned reserved royal icing to "glue" on the pink sixlets for the reindeer's nose. Fill a pastry bag fitted with pastry tip #20 (or similar) with about 1 cup of reserved icing and pipe Santa's moustache. Add a pink candy bead nose by pressing into the top of each moustache. Pipe a dollop of frosting on the top of Santa's hat and sprinkle with white nonpareils.
Sweetapolita's Notes:
