These Cute Cacti Cookies with Royal Icing are perfect for a Mexican fiesta party! You can add emoji faces or keep them plain.
My mom and I made these Cute Cacti Cookies for a Mexican Fiesta party to celebrate my cousin's marriage. She had a destination wedding in Mexico and an at-home party for the guests unable to attend the wedding.
My daughters had been using this Mini Treats Sewing Kit around the time of the party, so we decided to add some cute emoji faces to some of the cacti.
We also made Sombrero Cookies and emjoi face Chili Pepper Cookies.
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Supplies
- your favorite roll out sugar cookie dough, such as Cut Out Sugar Cookies or Vanilla Shortbread Cookies
- cactus cookie cutter
- Easy Royal Icing
- pink and green food coloring gel
- disposable piping bags
- piping bag holders, optional, or tall drinking glasses
- plastic tip couplers, optional
- small round piping tips, like #2, #5, and #7
- toothpicks or scribe tool
- small drop flower tip, like a #106
- white sugar pearls
- black food coloring markers or pens, such as FooDoodlers
Cut and Bake the Cookies
Roll the cookie dough out to ¼-inch thickness. I like to use ¼-inch dowel rods as guides for my rolling pin to ensure even thickness. See my Cut Out Sugar Cookies for more details. I use this technique for sugar cookies and shortbread cookies.
Cut the rolled dough with a cactus cookie cutter.
Bake the cookies on parchment lined cookie sheets according to your recipe's instructions.
Allow the cookies to cool to room temperature before proceeding with the icing.
Outline the Cookies
Add about 1 cup of Royal Icing stock to a bowl. Add small amounts of warm water to thin to outline consistency icing. Tint with green food coloring gel to achieve a light green color, or whatever shade of green you would like the cacti to be.
Transfer the outline consistency icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a small round tip, such as a #2. You can use a tall drinking glass or a piping bag holder to keep the bag open while transferring the icing.
Pipe an outline around the border of each cookie. Add the leftover outline consistency icing back to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap to use later.
Allow the outline icing to dry for at least 1 hour before flooding.
Flood the Cookies
Thin the green outline icing with small amounts of warm water to achieve flood consistency icing. Transfer the icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a large round tip, like a #7, or the tip cut off. You can also use a squeeze bottle.
Flood the icing inside the outline. Use a toothpick or a scribe tool to swirl the wet icing to remove any bubbles.
Allow the icing to dry until set, up to 24 hours. How quickly it dries will depend on the temperature and humidity of your workspace.
Add the Details
Using stock royal icing, thin with small amounts of warm water to achieve outline consistency icing. Tint the icing dark green with green food coloring gel.
Transfer the icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a small round tip, such as a #5.
On some of the cacti, pipe 3 long lines down the center stem and then two lines on each side stem. On the other cacti, pipe one or two small lines on the top of the center stem, two small lines on the bottom of the center stem, and two lines on each side stem, leaving the center of the cactus free to add an emoji face later.
Immediately after piping, add a few sugar pearls to the wet icing.
Tint stiff royal icing with pink food coloring gel to achieve a bright pink icing. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a small drop flower tip, like a #106. Pipe a single flower at the top of the middle stem, or pipe a flower at the top of each of the three stems.
Immediately add a sugar pearl to the center of each flower and press down gently to get it to stick.
Allow the icing to dry completely, up to 24 hours.
If you would like to add emoji faces, use a black food coloring marker, such as FooDoodlers, to draw on two oval eyes and a smile in the center of the cacti that have no icing in the center.
Use a toothpick dipped in white (untinted) royal icing to add a small dot in the upper left of each eye.
Allow the icing to dry completely before storing in an airtight container or packaging in treat bags.
Storage
Once the icing has dried completely, store them in an airtight container at room temperature in a single layer.
I do not recommend stacking the cookies unless you place aluminum foil between the layers to prevent grease transfer from the top cookie to the bottom cookie.
Alternatively, you can package them in treat bags secured with a twist tie or ribbon.
Gluten Free Option
Use your favorite gluten free sugar cookie or shortbread cookie recipe. The royal icing is naturally gluten free. Check your packaging for possible gluten contaminants.
📖 Recipe
Cute Cacti Cookies with Royal Icing
Equipment
- 1 cactus cookie cutter
- disposable piping bags
- Piping bag holders optional
- plastic tip couplers optional
- small round piping tips, like #2, #5, and #7
- toothpicks or scribe tool
- small drop flower tip, like a #106
Ingredients
- your favorite roll out sugar cookie dough (see note)
- Easy Royal Icing (see note)
- pink and green food coloring gel
- white sugar pearls
- black food coloring marker or pen (such as FooDoodlers)
Instructions
Cut and Bake the Cookies
- Roll the cookie dough out to ¼-inch thickness.
- Cut the rolled dough with a cactus cookie cutter.
- Bake the cookies on parchment lined cookie sheets according to your recipe's instructions.
- Allow the cookies to cool to room temperature before proceeding with the icing.
Outline the Cookies
- Add about 1 cup of Easy Royal Icing stock to a bowl. Add small amounts of warm water to thin to outline consistency icing. Tint with green food coloring gel to achieve a light green color, or whatever shade of green you would like the cacti to be.
- Transfer the outline consistency icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a small round tip, such as a #2. You can use a tall drinking glass or a piping bag holder to keep the bag open while transferring the icing.
- Pipe an outline around the border of each cookie. Add the leftover outline consistency icing back to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap to use later.
- Allow the outline icing to dry for at least 1 hour before flooding.
Flood the Cookies
- Thin the green outline icing with small amounts of warm water to achieve flood consistency icing. Transfer the icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a large round tip, like a #7, or the tip cut off. You can also use a squeeze bottle.
- Flood the icing inside the outline. Use a toothpick or a scribe tool to guide the icing to the edges and to swirl the wet icing to remove any bubbles.
- Allow the icing to dry until set, up to 24 hours.
Add the Details
- Using stock royal icing, thin with small amounts of warm water to achieve outline consistency icing. Tint the icing dark green with green food coloring gel.
- Transfer the icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a small round tip, such as a #5.
- On some of the cacti, pipe 3 long lines down the center stem and then two lines on each side stem. On the other cacti, pipe one or two small lines on the top of the center stem, two small lines on the bottom of the center stem, and two lines on each side stem, leaving the center of the cactus free to add an emoji face later.
- Immediately after piping, add a few sugar pearls to the wet icing.
- Tint stiff royal icing with pink food coloring gel to achieve a bright pink icing. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a small drop flower tip, like a #106. Pipe a single flower at the top of the middle stem, or pipe a flower at the top of each of the three stems.
- Immediately add a sugar pearl to the center of each flower and press down gently to get it to stick.
- Allow the icing to dry completely, up to 24 hours.
- If you would like to add emoji faces, use a black food coloring marker, such as FooDoodlers, to draw on two oval eyes and a smile in the center of the cacti that have no icing in the center.
- Use a toothpick dipped in white (untinted) royal icing to add a small dot in the upper left of each eye.
- Allow the icing to dry completely before storing in an airtight container or packaging in treat bags.
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