Was your house visited by a tiny little mischief maker last November and December? Dressed up all cute, getting into hijinks, being generally adorable and all anyone seemed to want to talk about? No, I’m not talking about that Elf on the Shelf… I’m talking about Baby Yoda! If your household was anything like mine, there was at least one person that melted every time Baby Yoda showed up on the Disney+ hit, The Mandalorian. And maybe like us, you’re also going through a bit of a tough withdrawal period now that the first season has ended and it feels like forever until season two. If you think Baby Yoda is so cute that you just want to Eat Him Up, then I’m here to help you! This is the way.
First off, nerds of the world, I am one of you. I know that technically this little guy isn’t Baby Yoda. He (*or she) is simply named The Child on the show, without any more elaboration. But for the purposes of this post and Google Search results, we’re going with the culturally accepted Baby Yoda as the name. These cookies depict one of the most meme’d scenes of The Mandalorian, when Baby Yoda appears calmly sipping some broth while watching a knockdown, drag out fight. It’s adorable and I knew it’d be just a matter of time before these cookies would exist.
You may have seen the hack out there for Baby Yoda sugar cookies- to chop the head off of a Christmas angel cookie cutter and to decorate what’s left. It works, it does. I tried this first and it was acceptable. But I felt like the proportions were off- he was about 60% head and 40% body. So I wanted to get a little more creative and try and find better proportions for the little guy, and give me a bit more space for some detail work. The good news is that you don’t need much in the way of materials to make these guys, after the cutters.
Materials Needed for Baby Yoda Sugar Cookies
- Sugar cookies (find my favorite recipe at the bottom of this post)
- Angel cookie cutter and rectangle cookie cutter (Available here and here on Amazon)
- Royal Icing, all colors at medium consistency. Medium consistency is between flooding and piping- when you drip it back into the mixing bowl, it should disappear in about 4 seconds. Find the recipe at the bottom of this post, or check out my beginners tutorial here if you need newbie help!
- Light Green (I used forest green, available here)
- Light Pink
- Light Brown
- Medium Brown
- Black food grade black marker
- Edible gold dust (available here) and a small paintbrush, plus lemon extract to dilute the dust
- Cookie decorating toolkit or etching needle (available here on Amazon)
- OPTIONAL: A counter top fan to speed drying times
Okay, we can’t keep the cutest baby in the galaxy waiting forever. Let’s get decorating!
For the first time in all of my tutorials, we’re not starting after the cookies are baked. We need to start at the dough step. Once your dough is rolled out, cut the angel shape like normal. Lay the shape flat on the counter and use a knife or pizza cutter (I like the pizza cutter for cleaner cut lines) to chop off the angel’s head. Don’t go straight across, curve your line a little so that Baby Yoda’s head will have a more rounded shape. If you have a similar angel cutter to me, the bottom of the angel’s dress will not be straight. Slice that off as well.
Now grab your rectangle cookie cutter and cut a rectangle. Lay it flat on the counter. Now cut the rectangle in half and line it up with the bottom of your angel cookie. Press the seams together and place on the parchment covered baking sheet. If the two pieces fall apart as you move them, no worries. Press them back together on the baking sheet and proceed with the recipe instructions as normal. As the cookies bake, they’ll glue themselves together.
Once your cookies are cool, you’ll begin with Baby Yoda’s collar. Use your light brown icing and a #1 tip to create the right side of his collar. Allow a couple minutes for the icing to crust over and then make the other side, which starts narrower and overlaps the first side in the middle. Put your cookies under a fan for about an hour to fully harden.
Next, pick up your medium brown icing with a #2 tip. Fill in the entire cookie under the collar. Use your etching needle to press the icing into the tight corners of the collar if you need to. Once you’ve gotten them all filled in, go back to the first cookie and pipe two thin lines with your light brown icing from the collar to the bottom of the cookie. I have my Baby Yoda’s angled slightly to the left, so the lines curve a bit.
Use your medium brown icing to make two semicircle shapes on either side of the light brown seams, these will eventually be a part of his robe’s arms. On the top side of the collar, use your black icing (#1 tip) to create a shadow on the left side where there is a gap. Now put your cookies back under the fan for another hour so that all your hard work can harden up!
In between those two shapes, use your light brown icing to make a square mug shape. Give the square about 20 minutes under the fan to harden and then mix up your edible gold paint in a small dish (about 1/4 tsp of dust and a few drops of lemon extract should do it!). Carefully paint the mug with the gold dust.
Now it’s time for Baby Yoda’s face! Use your light green icing and a #1 tip to pipe a face shape as depicted above. Fill in the entire shape except for the bottom parts of the ears.
Keep holding on to your green icing and pipe two small arms coming out of the sleeves and tiny hands on the sides of the mug. Then grab your black icing and pipe two lines on the outside of the brown robe arms.
When Baby Yoda’s face has hardened up, use your black icing again to pipe two elongated eyes and more shadows on the innermost section of the sleeves, where the arms emerge. Find your pink icing (#1 tip) and fill in the bottom portions of his ears completely. Use just a little more green to pipe a button nose between the eyes. Finally, make another set of semicircles on the outsides of Baby Yoda’s elbows to create some more bulk. Grab your black fine tipped marker and draw a small mouth on each face. You’re done!
Well then, how did your little Baby Yoda turn out? It was a lot of steps, but I hope you’ve found that it was all worth it in the end! Make sure to let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts or questions that I can answer! Until next time, happy decorating!
Foolproof Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In bowl, mix together 3 cups of the flour and baking power. Set aside.
- In separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the extracts and the egg and beat until combined.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Dough will be crumbly.
- Press dough together with hands, and roll out on a well-floured surface. Cut shapes and place on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.
- Refrigerate baking sheet for at least 10 minutes.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, remove when cookie edges are just barely golden. Allow several minutes to cool on sheet before moving cookies to a rack.
Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 Tbsp meringue powder
- 4 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar sifted
- 1/2 tsp Karo syrup (optional)
- 1/8 tsp clear flavored extract (optional)
Instructions
- Combine water and meringue powder in a bowl and beat with mixer until frothy.
- Sift powdered sugar into the same bowl and mix to combine
- Add syrup and extract if desired
- Beat the icing for 4-5 minutes until it is glossy and holds a peak if the beater is turned upside down
Medium Consistency
- Continue to add water ½ Tbsp at a time until at desired consistency (icing should disappear into itself in about 5 seconds after being dripped back into the mixing bowl).
Flooding Consistency
- Continue to add water ½ Tbsp at a time until at desired consistency (icing should disappear into itself in about 3 seconds after being dripped back into the mixing bowl).
