Unicorn Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
These Unicorn Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing are decorated with a colorful mane and a gold nose and horn. They are perfect for a unicorn birthday party!
Servings 19 cookies (approx.)
Equipment
- Unicorn head cookie cutter
- disposable piping bags
- Plastic tip coupler
- Small round piping tips
- Small flower and star piping tips
- food dedicated paint palette
- food grade paintbrushes
- plastic transfer pipette
Ingredients
- 1 batch Cut Out Sugar Cookies or Vanilla Shortbread Cookies see note
- 1 batch Easy Royal Icing see note
- Pink, purple, blue, and gold food coloring gel
- Sugar pearls
- Wilton Edible Accents Gold Stars
- 1 Black food coloring marker
- Gold luster dust
- Everclear or vodka
Instructions
Bake the Cookies
- Roll the dough to ¼-inch thick and cut with a unicorn head cookie cutter.
- Bake the cookies according to recipe and allow to cool completely before decorating.
Decorate with Royal Icing
- Prepare a batch of Easy Royal Icing. This will be your "stock" icing that you will dilute to different consistencies before piping.
- Place some of the stock icing in a bowl and add small amounts of warm water until you reach a consistency that is slightly thicker than flood consistency icing. See note below.
- Transfer the icing to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, such as a #5. Outline the area you want to be white, which is the entire unicorn head except for the horn. Immediately after outlining, add the flood inside. Because the outline has not had time to dry, you don't want to put too much flood icing. Dragging the icing with a toothpick or scribe tool can help guide it to the edges so you don't overfill it. You can also use the scribe tool to swirl the wet icing a bit to pop bubbles and make the surface smooth.
- Allow the flooded cookies to dry for at least an hour before adding the horn.
- To make the horn, take the leftover flood consistency icing and add small amounts of the "stock" icing so that the consistency is easily piped but still holds its shape. Tint this with gold food coloring gel. Tinting the icing gold will help intensify the gold luster dust when it is added later.
- Transfer the gold tinted icing to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, like a #5.
- Pipe on every other section of the horn, which you will let dry before adding the other two sections so you get definitive lines in between them. This will help give the spiraling look of a unicorn horn.
- Allow the cookies to dry overnight.
- To add the unicorn's mane, use small flower and/or star tips to create different designs with a stiffer consistency royal icing. This icing is not as thick as the stock, but it's only thinned slightly with warm water so it's easier to pipe but maintains it's shape after piping. Once you have made the slightly thinned icing, divide into each of 3 bowls and tint with pink, purple, and blue food coloring. Transfer each to a piping bag fitted with the desired tip and pipe on the mane.
- Immediately after piping, while the icing is still wet, add some sugar pearls and edible gold stars. Allow to dry overnight.
- Once the cookies have completely set, draw on the eye using a black food coloring marker.
Paint the Gold Nose and Horn
- Place a small amount of gold luster dust in the well of a paint palette. Add the alcohol drop by drop with a transfer pipette and mix well with a food grade paintbrush until the gold is evenly suspended in the alcohol.
- Carefully brush the gold onto the royal icing in the nose area of the cookie. You may need multiple coats because it's being painted onto white royal icing. If your gold suspension doesn't have enough gold powder in it, it may require even more coats. The alcohol evaporates quickly, so you can do the coats close together.
- Repeat the painting step with the horn. It will not require as many coats if you tinted the royal icing with the gold food gel.
Package the Cookies
- Once the cookies have completely dried, usually 24 hours, they can be packaged in clear treat bags and tied with a ribbon or twist tie. They make adorable party favors!
Notes
Cut Out Sugar Cookies recipe HERE This sugar cookie recipe results in wrinkled tops, which will be covered by royal icing. If you prefer a smoother surface, consider making a batch of Vanilla Shortbread Cookies. Vanilla Shortbread Cookies recipe HERE
Easy Royal Icing recipe HERE
If this is your first time working with royal icing, I highly recommend reading Marian's tips on royal icing. She goes into detail on how to make the different consistency icings.
For more details on painting icing with gold luster dust, see my Painted Watercolor Cookies post.
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