Oyster Pearl Cookies
An easy guide for how to make Oyster Pearl Cookies with vanilla wafers. These adorable ocean cookies are a perfect dessert for a beach, Under the Sea, or Mermaid Party!
For Charlotte’s Under the Sea Birthday Party, I got a lot of inspiration from Pinterest. When I saw this idea for Under the Sea Cookies, I knew I had to make them. We were already having a Mermaid Ice Cream Cake, but they were too cute to pass on!
The recipe is super simple. You can use homemade buttercream, such as my Easy Vanilla Buttercream, or store bought frosting. The assembly takes just minutes. You can go with any colors to fit your theme. I chose pink, purple, and teal buttercream with a white pearl, but I could see teal and white buttercream with colored pearls, or all one color buttercream. Endless possibilities!
LOOKING FOR MORE UNDER THE SEA COOKIES? Check out these easy Starfish Cookies! No piping, no royal icing!
Recipe Details
Ingredients and Supplies for Under the Sea Cookies
Vanilla Wafer Cookies (Nilla Wafers or gluten free Vanilla Wafers)
1 batch Easy Vanilla Buttercream, Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream, or store bought frosting in white or colors
Wilton Neon food coloring gels
Pearlized shimmer Sixlets
Plastic piping bag coupler
Disposable Pastry Bag
Small star tip
You need 3 main ingredients to make these beach themed cookies. Vanilla wafers, buttercream or frosting, and pearlized shimmer Sixlets candies. I chose to use my favorite Easy Vanilla Buttercream recipe and tinted it 3 colors: pink, purple, and teal from this Wilton food coloring gel kit. If you prefer not to make your own frosting, you could purchase store bought white frosting and tint it with these colors.
If you want to keep it super simple, you could use store bought colored frosting, such as this Pillsbury Funfetti frosting, which comes in pink, purple, and blue colors.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT STORE BOUGHT FROSTING: I have not tried piping store bought frosting, so it may not turn out exactly like mine. Depending on the brand, it may be too runny to pipe. If you find that when you pipe it, the design quickly disappears and runs off the cookie, you could add some of your own powdered sugar to the frosting to make it stiffer and more pipeable.
Piping and Assembly
The first step for assembling the cookies is to pipe on the buttercream or frosting. I used a disposable pastry bag with a plastic piping bag coupler and small star tip to pipe each color of frosting in a swirl pattern on a Nilla Wafer cookie. I repeated this until I ran out of frosting.
Then, I added a top Nilla Wafer cookie on top of the buttercream and pushed it down gently so the backs of the cookies met and it looked like a little opened oyster shell. Last, I placed a single pearlized shimmer Sixlets candy into the buttercream in front to represent the pearl in the oyster.
Gluten Free Seashell Cookies
Use gluten free Vanilla Wafers in place of Nilla wafers.
Looking for More Under the Sea Themed Party Ideas?
Check out my Under the Sea Birthday Party, Mermaid Ice Cream Birthday Cake, and Starfish Cookies!
Looking for More Party Ideas?
Check out my other party ideas with planning and decorating tips and recipes:
Under the Sea Birthday Party
Bridal Shower Dessert Table
Sesame Street Birthday Party
FROZEN Cake and Birthday Party
Cinderella Cake and Birthday Party
Daniel Tiger Cake and Birthday Party
My Little Pony Rainbow Unicorn Ice Cream Cake
Rainbow Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches
Painted Rainbow Cookies
Winter Wonderland Birthday Party
Penelope Bird Cookies and 1st Birthday Party
Oyster Pearl Cookies
Equipment
- disposable piping bags
- plastic couplers
- small star tips
Ingredients
- 1 batch Easy Vanilla Buttercream (or store bought frosting, see note)
- Vanilla wafer cookies (Nilla Wafers or gluten free Vanilla wafers)
- pearlized shimmer Sixlets candies
Instructions
- Prepare the vanilla buttercream. Divide into small bowls, 1 bowl per color frosting you want. Tint with gel food colorings as desired.
- Add each color frosting to a disposable piping bag fitted with a plastic coupler and a small star tip.
- Divide the vanilla wafers into 2 equal portions, 1 will be the top cookie, 1 will be the bottom cookie.
- Pipe buttercream onto half of the vanilla wafer cookies. Top each mound of buttercream with a single Sixlets candy. Place an unfrosted vanilla wafer on top to look like a half opened oyster shell. Repeat until all cookies are assembled.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature or refrigerated until ready to serve. Allow refrigerated cookies to come to room temperature before serving. Making too far in advance may cause the cookies to soften.
