Today I want to share with you how to decorate simple T-Rex Dinosaur Cookies!
I find it quite funny that I've written a tutorial that involves decorating cookies. I tell people all the time that cookies aren't "my thing" and yet... I continue to find myself in the middle of decorating them! Having said that, if I'm going to write a cookie tutorial, you better believe it's going to be a simple one... Ha!
Again, I'll be the first to admit that I am not a cookie expert and it's taken me a couple of years to feel confident enough with them to take regular orders.
Today I'll share some of my methods!
Here's what you'll need:
- Dinosaur Cookies (I used a t-rex cutter from this Wilton set) baked with my Roll-Out Sugar Cookie Recipe
- Royal Icing in three colors… I used blue, green and black. My recipe is done with meringue powder and you can find it here.
- Gel Colors... I prefer Americolor Gel Colors
- Piping Bags
- #1 and #3 round icing tips
- Boo-Boo Stick (or toothpicks)
- Food Marker (optional)
For this tutorial, I assume that you already have the cookies baked and cooled. I listed the cutter that I used above, but you could use this tutorial for any shape dinosaur - making small adjustments for different shapes.
If you don't already have a good recipe for this type of cookie, my favorite roll-out sugar cookie recipe is here.
In this recipe, I'm going to refer to stiff icing and flood icing. You can read more about this here and here. Also, I used a #3 round tip for all borders and flooding on these cookies. You could go a little smaller or bigger, but #3 is perfect for me!
So, are we ready?
Step 1: Using stiff icing, the first thing you're going to do is outline the t-rex's belly. I made a simple oval shape with stiff icing. I generally work with 6-8 cookies at a time.
I piped the belly outlines on my first 6-8 cookies, then I went back to the first one and started flooding them. The outline icing only needs a few minutes to set up a little bit and it'll be ready to hold the flood icing.
Step 2: Fill in the belly with flood icing - being careful not to overfill it! You don't want the icing to spill over the edges - sometimes it takes a few minute for this to happen!
Step 3: Outline the rest of the body of the dinosaur with green stiff icing. I like to start at a endpoint if possible - or a corner where there would be a natural ending place.
Step 4: Again, working in groups of 6-8 cookies, after I had them all outlined, I went back to the first one and begin to flood them.
Don't worry about getting in all the small spaces or if bubbles appear - we'll fix that in a minute. Just be sure to flood with enough icing to spread it out and fill in the edges.
Step 5: While the flood icing is still wet, use a toothpick or my favorite cookie tool, a Boo-Boo Stick, to spread out the frosting and pop any bubbles.
Note - here's a full picture of the Boo-Boo Stick (which can only be purchased at Karen's Cookies as far as I know)...
The flat end is perfect for spreading icing into small spaces - the pointed end is perfect for popping any air bubbles!
Step 6: To add the blue spots - there are two options - smooth or raised.
I wanted my spots to be smooth, so I immediately went back and started adding them while the green flood icing was still wet. The wet on wet allows them to settle and be smooth with the green.
Those above are still settling but they will end up flat and smooth with the green. But if you wanted them raised, you could wait and pipe them after the green icing had dried for 15-20 minutes. You can see the difference below:
That's pretty cool, huh? I think either way it looks very neat!
Step 7: At this point, you want to let the cookies dry for at least a couple of hours (maybe even with a fan blowing on them). I let them dry overnight.
You just want to be able to pipe on the eyes, nose and mouth without the black bleeding into the green. For those, I used a tiny #1 piping tip. I also went back and added claws on the feet using the blue stiff icing.
Alternatively, you could also draw them on with a black food marker. The next day, I did some both ways and the marker is easier, but if you don't have one, the icing works! The above photo is icing. The one below is a marker...
If you use icing, you'll want to let that dry another couple of hours (or overnight if you can) before boxing or packaging them up!
And that's it - only a few steps and you can have some super cute, yet simple T-Rex Dinosaur Cookies! If you're just learning to do cookies, start with simple designs (like this) and get comfortable with cookie techniques and before you know it, you'll be moving on to fancier and more details cookies!
Happy Caking!
Rose
WAIT! Before you go... would you like to see more cookie tutorials from me? If so, how are your skills when it comes to cookie decorating? Are you an expert? A beginner? Somewhere in between? Please leave me a comment!
PS. If you’re not already subscribed to my blog, would you? You can sign up here for my free email updates and then you’ll never miss a cake or dessert or deal or any other quirky thing I choose to post here! 🙂
Megan
Perfect timing! I'm about to do my first-ever decorated cookies for a baby shower, and I am nervous about pulling it off!
Rose
You'll do great Megan!
Joanne
now I will have those cookies to go with that cake-a-saurus-rex cake that I want to attempt from Craftsy and they will be a lot more doable. I am not so good at plumbing parts. Cookies, I can handle, especially with your instructions. Thank you once again. Hope your son is mending.
Rose
Thanks so much Joanne! Best of luck with your cake and cookies!
Cheryl
I would love to see more cookie tutorials!
Rose
Thanks Cheryl!! I'll remember that!
KimMJ
Would love more cookie tutorials! Just starting out with cookies and always searching for new recipes.
Anita
Hi Rose, did you use ur sugar cookie recipe to make these cookies?
Rose
Yes!
Sarah
When you leave the cookies out to dry overnight, do you put them in any type of container or cookie tin? That is, do the cookies get too hard left out overnight?
Nancy
I use your roll out sugar cookie recipe. Its my first time doing it and usr a different icing recipe. But Im not sure if they are good. I did had to add a lot of flour the next day when I was going to bake them.
ana clara
Rose, I love your cookies and your explanation is wonderful as always.
how long do the cookies keep good for?
how do you keep them before and after they are decorated?
thank you!!!
Ana
Rose Atwater
If I bake them more than 2 days in advance, I freeze them. Once they're decorated, they can also be frozen but usually I just keep them in a cookie sheet with a lid until time to box them up.
Sharon Wulbrecht
Hello, I would like to ask what green Americolor to use. There are several, mint, avocado, leaf green, forest green, electric green, etc. Thank you!
Rose Atwater
I used Electric green.
Katie
I would love to see more tutorials! Just started playing with royal icing so I love how simple and step by step this is! I've never used gel colors before I started doing royal icing so this is probably a really silly question, but the colors seem very "true"- ie if I get a,bottle of red, just one drop makes red, and I can't get it to make pink without adding a toooon more white icing. So I guess my question is, do you mix colors or do you have to buy each color you want?
Rose
I buy lots of colors but I also mix them when needed.
Tara R
My daughter is a culinary student in High School and I'm trying to help her start a little business and I thought cookies would be fun! Thank you so much for all of the great information!
Jan Peterson
Very good explanation, however the recipe for flood icing was not given. IS it the same with more water?
Rose
Yes.