Happy spooky season! Getting in the Halloween mood with cookie monsters, pumpkins and glittery skulls. # 316: Spooky Orange Cardamom Sugar Cookies

Guess who rearranged her baking cabinet and found all sorts of fun sprinkles? And FIVE sets of food coloring in various states of use? Note to self – never buy a food coloring set again. Even when teal is involved. Chill, please.

I’m so pleased with how these turned out! Started from the bottom with my first attempt at royal icing in 2017, and now we’re here. *happy dance*

Nathan walked by while I was decorating these and said “Cookie Monster!” And now I can’t un-see it.

Throwback to the coolest pineapple of cookies, when I discovered the magic of meringue powder. The true MVP: it helps the royal icing set quickly during the decorating process, allowing for more distinct designs. I’m still never going to be a great cookie artist but these look less like a 5-year-old decorated them, so I’m considering it a win.

The spooky green tinge is another perk of my baking cabinet purge: leftover blue and yellow dyed sugar from a batch of marshmallow peeps. From one holiday dessert to another!

I had a whole Day of the Dead plan for the skulls involving my edible ink pens, but around 11:30pm glitter seemed like a much better idea. I then spent at least a minute twirling each cookie around in the light to watch it sparkle. Naturally.

The Sweet Ambs sugar cookie recipe has never let me down! Soft but sturdy, and infinitely customizable with spices, zests and liqueurs.

My spatula’s favorite time of year.

I love how Halloween turns questionable design choices in deliberate goals, like orange zest flecks in the green dough. Basically anything that combines orange, green and purple gets the spotlight in October.

I’ve found that if I chill it for long enough, there’s no need for parchment paper. Just a sprinkle of flour and we’re on a roll!

Fun fact: hedgehog cookie cutters make great spiky monster cookie.

Casually using every sheet pan I own, rotating between the fridge, the oven and the cooling racks.

Highly recommend sifting when making royal icing. I normally skip it because who has the time, but you really want a smooth finish with no unexpected cameos from lumps of sugar.

A blank canvas. Ten different food colors were vying for the four spots, and orange and green were already shoe-ins. Tough competition.

Here we go!

Icing walls: check.

Added a little water to reach flood consistency.

Plush.

Monster time.

The little sugar eyeballs get me every time. They’re just the right mix of cute and creepy, you know?

The edible ink pen wanted to crash through the delicate top layer of the icing, so I bailed after one Jack-o-lantern. I’ll have to experiment with other kinds of icing and writing directly on cookies.

GLITTER.

Happy munching!

Recipes from: http://www.sweetambs.com/