Halloween Grim Reaper Cookies

When I find a cookie cutter that can be used for multiple designs it's like winning the lotto. Not that I know what winning the lotto feels like, but I imagine it's an exciting feeling. Well, I hit the proverbial jackpot when I received my gnome cutters in the mail from Sarah at Klickitat Street. After she recently announced she was making her own line of cookie cutters and wrote a blog post showcasing the variety of designs you can make, I just had to order them.

Once I got my hands on these cutters, I couldn't wait to put them to use. It's Halloween this week and I knew just the design I wanted to try out. Using Sarah's girl gnome cookie cutter, I made grim reaper cookies.

Preparing the Dough

Making these grim reaper cookies requires one easy alteration. After cutting out the girl gnome shape in the dough, simply trim off the hat at an angle with a knife like shown below. Bake and you are ready to decorate.

The Icing Process

Just like I mentioned in my Adding a Ghost post, these cookies use a great technique I learned from the Marlyn of Montreal Confections. Her Princess Realistic Eyes tutorial is one of my favorite techniques. She adds depth and dimension by first painting on the cookie surface, then flooding around it. Click here to check out the tutorial as well as all her other amazing YouTube videos.

Step 1

Begin by sketching out the shape of the hood with a food coloring marker.

Step 2

With black flood icing and a food-only paintbrush, paint the inner area of the hood. Try not to get black icing on the outside of the outer line. Let the icing dry.

Step 3

With purple (or which ever color you choose for the cloak) piping icing, pipe over the hood outline, the teardrop-shaped hood opening, and around the lower edges of the cookie. Fill the middle with flood icing. Leave the icing to dry and crust over. (About 1 to 2 hours.)

Step 4

Once the base layer is dry, add the two arm sleeves. I like to pipe the circle openings first, then connect the circles to the middle shoulder bump of the cookie. Fill the middle area with flood icing.

Step 5

With white piping icing, pipe a keyhole-shaped skull with two eye openings then flood the middle area. Using a #1 icing tip, add skeleton hand details by piping tiny dots and dashes. Leave this to dry completely. (6 hours or overnight.)

Step 6

Once the cookie is completely dry, add the fine details with a food marker. I added the nostril skull holes, teeth, and fold accents on the cloak using a Rainbow Dust food pen.

The finished grim reaper cookies should look something like the ones below. Staring at these pictures now, I think I would change the hand positions if I attempt these cookies again in the future. To me, these grim reapers look like they're playing an imaginary saxophone, or a clarinet. Maybe a fun sinister pose would have been more appropriate, like a Mr. Burns style of hand gesture.

One final note, these grim reaper cookies were part of a set of other skull-themed cookies. Stay tuned in the next day or two and I'll show you how to make one of those other designs.