How to Make Haunted House Cookies

Written by Mike Tamplin • Aug 16, 2017

Haunted house cookies can be intimidating to decorate, but they don’t have to be.

I tried designing a version of a haunted house that takes only a few steps to decorate, but also carried enough character to put anyone in the Halloween spirit.

Hopefully, these haunted house cookies do just that. The decorating process itself only involves 3 different icing colors, while the window face elements provide the punch of personality that will spook a smile on anyone’s face.

Haunted House Cookie Cutter

Added to the shop, along with six other new Halloween designs, is this haunted house cookie cutter.

The haunted house cookie will fit in these great 4″x4″ gift boxes if you would like to present them as a single party favor to guests.

Template for the Haunted House Cookies

I provided a downloadable template for the all the Halloween design ideas this season. In the template file, I’ve included designs for the haunted house, as well as the ghosts, the pumpkin, the candycorn, and the basic witch cookies.

You can download the haunted house and the other Halloween cookie templates HERE.

If you have a Kopykake or Pico projector, just print it out (or pull it up on your mobile device) and you are good to go. For those without a projector, follow the suggested steps below by cutting out the template and tracing the design onto the cookie with an edible food marker.

The Decorating Process

These haunted house cookies require only a few steps to complete. However, the design itself is a little intricate. I'll show you below how to decorate these cookies using a template, but I highly recommend using a projector if you have it. It will save you a lot of time.

To decorate these cookies, you will need the following suggested colors:

Yellow flood royal icing (I used Americolor Egg Yellow.)
Midnight outline and flood icing (I mixed Americolor Super Black a touch of Regal Purple.)
Light Purple outline icing (I mixed Americolor Regal Purple a touch of Super Black.)

Step 1

With yellow flood icing and a food-only paintbrush, paint the middle and bottom area of the haunted house, as shown below. Let the icing dry.

Step 2

For those without a projector, etch guidelines where the window areas should be, as shown. I made a template with template plastic from the PDF file above and used a scribe to etch the guideline in the yellow icing.

(Note: I used a scribe instead of a food marker because I didn't want the marker lines to be visible. If you happen to have a yellow food marker, that might be a nice discreet alternative, as well.)

Step 3

Next, with outline icing, outline around the windows and around the edge of the cookie. Then flood the house section will flood icing. Be careful as you flood around the intricate windows. Let this icing dry completely before moving on.

Step 4

The last step is to add the detailed outlines with the light purple icing. Because the line details are intricate and kinda close together, I used #1 PME tip.

I started with the center house detail, then worked my way around the sides.

Video Tutorial

The steps above are demonstrated in the time-lapsed video below.

You can't have haunted house cookies without a few ghosts, right?

I added a two options for ghost cookies to my shop. These ghost cookies are a nice spooky complement to the haunted house cookies. In a few days, I'll be showcasing how to decorate the fat boo ghosts.

One more thing, these haunted house gift tags made by OwlHouse.Co are perfect for adding an extra special touch to your Halloween gift set.