Black and White Halloween Cookies

This is my sixth set of Halloween wafer paper cookies this year. I'm decorating the house with a cream and black Halloween palette, and I wanted a simple, elegant set of cookies to complement. This set has 24 cookies of 4 designs — skulls, rats, bats, and spiders.

These are some of my "cheater" cookies: I didn't make the cookies themselves. They're good old Lorna Doone shortbread cookies from the grocery store. I piped a white border, flooded with white, and then just "glued" on the wafers with corn syrup. I tried a few with a black border, a dotted border, etc., but I liked the plain unbordered ones best. A lot of bang for the buck in terms of time spent decorating.

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The Black and White Halloween Cookie wafer papers are available for purchase here.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Vintage Halloween Postcard Cookies

This is the third set of wafer paper cookies from vintage Halloween postcards. This set has Edwardian beauties in costume, with owls, bats, black cats, and pumpkins. Each cookie has a Halloween poem—I do love cookies you can read before eating :)

In order for the text to be readable, these cookies had to be bigger than I usually make—2.5"x3.75". There is no cutter on the market currently in that size, so I first cut a piece of heavy plastic in that size; that got too tedious, so I caved in and made a cutter with the Design Your Own Cookie Cutter kit. I piped the borders with a #16 star tip.

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The Vintage Halloween Poem Cookie wafer papers are available for purchase here.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Cookies of Vintage Halloween Children

I love vintage Halloween postcards—I'm doing a few different sets of them for Halloween this year. This is the second set; vintage illustrations of children with owls, bats, black cats, and, of course, pumpkins. The postcard artist for these was the famed Ellen Clapsaddle. The full set had 13 cookies (a baker's dozen), but, as often happens in this house, some got eaten before pics.

For the cookies, I used the middle cutter (2"x3" rectangle) from the Ateco 3-Piece Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set available through Amazon. I piped the border in black with a #16 star tip.

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The Vintage Halloween Children wafer papers are available for purchase here.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Vintage Halloween Postcard Witch Cookies

I love vintage Halloween postcards—I'm doing a few different sets of them for Halloween this year. This first set has witches, owls, bats, black cats, and, of course, pumpkins. The full set had 13 cookies (a baker's dozen), but some got eaten before the camera made it out :D

For the cookies, I used the middle cutter (2"x3" rectangle) from the Ateco 3-Piece Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set available through Amazon. I piped the border in black with a #16 star tip.

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The Vintage Halloween Witch wafer papers are available for purchase here.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Downton Abbey Tea Party Cookies

Downton Abbey series 3 begins tonight in the UK. For those of us in the US, the wait is long—we won't be seeing it on PBS before January 6, 2013! The agony!

I love the costuming on the show, especially the hats, and when I ran into these beauties, I knew they were crying out to become cookies. They're from vintage trading cards from the 19-teens to the 1920s, exactly the era of Downton Abbey.

This cookie looks exactly like Lady Edith, to me. I wish the costumers showed her some mercy and gave her something fabulous to wear!

For the cookies, I used the middle cutter (2"x3" rectangle) from the Ateco 3-Piece Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set available through Amazon. I piped the border in white with a #16 star tip.

I will definitely make some for a premiere party for the show!

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The Downton Abbey-esque wafer papers are available for purchase here.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Halloween Medieval Memento Mori Cookies

Continuing along our Medieval Macabre Halloween Cookie trajectory begun by the "Dance of Death" Cookies, here are some Memento mori cookies.

These cookies are based on various Medieval manuscript images in which skeletons and zombie-like personifications of Death brandish weapons and drag people to the grave. They are part of a Medieval Memento mori tradition (literally: "Remember, thou shalt die") which served to remind the living that they, too, would die, so it was best to amend one's ways now, before facing Judgment. I like the idea of making Halloween cookies that are elegant and unusual, with a historical element. The Memento mori tradition was not, of course, for Halloween originally; it served as a year-round reminder, but I think it suits well.

I made the cookies with the largest cutter from the R & M Fluted Rectangular Cookie Cutter Set. I piped borders with a #16 star tip. These are on gingerbread, and the dough I used swelled an unpredictably huge amount; with a different dough, or even the same dough rolled thinner, I bet I could have gotten a prettier result. The border was piped in beige icing with a #16 star tip, then gilded with Wilton Pearl Dust in Gold.

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The Memento mori wafer papers are available for purchase here.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Halloween Dance of Death Cookies

Ordinarily, I'd wait until Halloween to make ghoulish cookies; but, I thought I'd make some ahead of time, so that those of you who are clamoring to buy Halloween wafer papers can do so in plenty of time and can make your own macabre masterpieces.

These cookies are based on a Medieval manuscript, which has gorgeous roundels depicting the "Dance of Death"; images in which skeletons haul away persons of various estates to the grave. They are part of a Medieval Memento mori tradition (literally: "Remember, thou shalt die") which served to remind the living that they, too, would die, so it was best to amend one's ways now, before facing Judgment. Creepy & cool. I liked the idea of making Halloween cookies that were elegant and unusual, with a historical element. The Danse macabre was not, of course, for Halloween originally; it was a year-round reminder, but I think it suits well.

The cookies were made with a 2.5" round fluted-edge cookie cutter from the Fox Run 6-Piece Plain and Crinkled Double Sided Biscuit Cutter Set. These are on sugar cookies, but I think, for Halloween proper, I'll make them on gingerbread. The border was piped in beige icing with a #16 star tip, then gilded with Wilton Pearl Dust in Gold.

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The Dance of Death wafer papers are available for purchase here.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

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Delicate Porcelain Bird Cookies

My aunt collects china with birds and, to me, the most beautiful are Sèvres porcelain. These cookies are made with wafer papers based on images of 18th-century Sèvres plates.

The cookies were made with a 2.5" round fluted-edge cookie cutter from the Fox Run 6-Piece Plain and Crinkled Double Sided Biscuit Cutter Set. The border was piped with a #16 star tip.

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The Sèvres porcelain bird cookie wafer papers are available for purchase here.
A step-by-step how-to for decorating cookies with wafer papers can be found here.

Read more »