These Funny Chili Pepper Cookies with Royal Icing have funny emoji faces. These are perfect for a Mexican fiesta party!
My mom and I made these Funny Chili Pepper Cookies with Royal Icing for my cousin's at home Mexican fiesta party to celebrate her wedding that was in Mexico.
As we were making them, they looked plain, so we decided to put some funny emoji faces on them. At the time, my daughters had been using this Mini Treats Sewing Kit to make adorable felt food items with little emoji faces. I used the book of examples from the kit to get ideas for faces.
We thought these turned out cute! We also made Sombrero Cookies and Cacti Cookies.
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Supplies
- your favorite roll out sugar cookie dough, such as Cut Out Sugar Cookies, or Vanilla Shortbread Cookies
- chili pepper cookie cutter, such as this one
- Easy Royal Icing
- red 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 and #7
- toothpicks or scribe tool
- 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 chili pepper 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 ½ cup Royal Icing stock to a bowl. Add small amounts of warm water to achieve outline consistency icing. Tint with green food coloring to achieve a bright green color that will be the stem.
Transfer the icing a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, such as #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 area at the top of the pepper to serve as the stem area. Add the leftover icing back to the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap to use later for the flood icing.
Add about 1 cup of Royal Icing stock to a separate bowl. Add small amounts of warm water to thin to outline consistency icing. Tint with red food coloring gel to achieve a vibrant red color.
Transfer the outline consistency icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a small round tip, such as a #2.
Pipe an outline around the border of each chili pepper. 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 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 green outline to fill in the stem area. Use a toothpick or a scribe tool to swirl the wet icing to remove any bubbles.
Repeat this process with the red icing. Flood the inside of the red outline.
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
To add the emoji faces, use a black food coloring marker, such as FooDoodlers, to draw on cute faces. You can do wink faces, add eyebrows, eyelashes, mustaches, or other features to indicate expression.
Use a toothpick dipped in white (untinted) royal icing to add a small dot in the upper left of each eye that is open.
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.
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
Funny Chili Pepper Cookies with Royal Icing
Equipment
- chili pepper cookie cutter
- disposable piping bags
- Piping bag holders optional
- plastic tip couplers optional
- small round piping tips, like #2 and #7
- toothpicks or scribe tool
Ingredients
- your favorite roll out sugar cookie dough (see note)
- Easy Royal Icing (see note)
- red and green food coloring gel
- black food coloring markers or pens (such as FooDoodlers)
Instructions
Cut and Bake the Cookies
- Roll the cookie dough out to ¼-inch thickness.
- Cut the rolled dough with a chili pepper 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 ½ cup royal icing stock to a bowl. Add small amounts of warm water to achieve outline consistency icing. Tint with green food coloring to achieve a bright green color that will be the stem.
- Transfer the icing a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, such as #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 area at the top of the pepper to serve as the stem area. Add the leftover icing back to the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap to use later for the flood icing.
- Add about 1 cup of royal icing stock to a separate bowl. Add small amounts of warm water to thin to outline consistency icing. Tint with red food coloring gel to achieve a vibrant red color.
- Transfer the outline consistency icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a small round tip, such as a #2.
- Pipe an outline around the border of each chili pepper. 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 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 green outline to fill in the stem area. Use a toothpick or a scribe tool to swirl the wet icing to remove any bubbles.
- Repeat this process with the red icing. Flood the inside of the red outline.
- 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
- To add the emoji faces, use a black food coloring marker, such as FooDoodlers, to draw on cute faces. You can do wink faces, add eyebrows, eyelashes, mustaches, or other features to indicate expression.
- Use a toothpick dipped in white (untinted) royal icing to add a small dot in the upper left of each eye that is open.
- Allow the icing to dry completely before storing in an airtight container or packaging in treat bags.
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