Day of the Dead Cookies

Lots of experimenting for Halloween going on around here lately!

This was the first cookie that was sort of going in the direction I hoped for.

Earlier tries were plain black until I added some nonpareils. But they just looked messy.
Like a small child had been playing in my kitchen. Which, to be honest, is mostly true.
Small kid, big body. And lots of wrinkles. How did THAT happen?
And WHO got sprinkles ALL over the kitchen floor???

I added white face paint for a more authentic feel. And then I thought, "sprinkles always say fun.
Who doesn't want to have fun?" When you're dead.

But the designer of this cookie cutter and stamp set made smiles on the skulls so . . . 
sPrInkLeS!!! Definitely.

I only used two of the four possible stamps in the set. They're all fun. And smiley. You may want to try all of them just to be fair. And so that no one feels left out.

I just couldn't see myself putting all those separate colors in those tiny spaces. And just pouring on blue (my favorite) wasn't the answer. Neither was piping on royal icing. Way too predictable. Okay. Alright. I'm lazy. And not a great piper. And a host of other excuses if you give me time.

The next attempt was to add some sprinkles around the edge during baking.
But not all of them wanted to stay put.

So I added them after baking with a thin coating of white chocolate to glue them down.
And I was pretty happy. Until I got them done. Then I wasn't sure. Again.

 Plain? In five Halloween colors?

Or with sprinkles in ten fun colors?

Or ten fun colors with no sprinkles? Do you feel my dilemma?

These cute little suckers at World Market didn't help me decide in the end.
But they were the inspiration to paint their sweet little cheeks and the rest of their faces white.

I used Wilton White liquid coloring straight from the bottle. Just brushed it on with a flat brush and tried not to get any in the embossed areas. Which mostly happened.

Except for on the orange one with sprinkles. She ended up with a white eye in the struggle. Which might've been a black eye if she was still alive but instead could be just a smashed eye socket. Lesson here is to go easy on the white. It doesn't come off no matter how you try.

The paint cracked a little during baking which turned out to be a happy accident. It seems a bit more like actual face paint than a smooth coat would've achieved. Remember how face paint kind of cracks off after you've worn it for a while? Especially when you smile a lot.

Which do you prefer? I still can't decide. Good thing I've got some time to make up my mind.

Meanwhile, heads will roll around here. If they don't get bitten off first. The recipe is one of Georganne Bell's aka Lila Loa and it's delicious! She has a whole bunch for you to choose from and they're all great!.

I divided up the mixture and colored it with Americolor gels before it was completely a dough and the cookies stayed soft rather than tough as I'd feared. Have no fear yourself and let me know which, if any of these, work in your eyes. I need your help here guys.

xoxo,
Deborah
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