Football Stadium Sugar Cookies

In our house, there’s four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Football. We’re deep into football season in mid November, the games matter more and the superstitions are REAL. If you’ve been wearing a particular sweatshirt all season and your team is killing it, there’s no way you’re gonna take it off now. If you’ve got a lucky chant, you’re gonna keep yelling it. Lucky socks stay on indefinitely. I don’t have a lucky sweatshirt, chant, or socks… but I do have a lucky cookie decorating tutorial to share with you today! This one is easy and fun, and you can get it done fast- I’m talking about in time for kickoff! Let’s get decorating before we get hit with a delay of game penalty!

I’ve got a few quick tips for you before we break the huddle and get going today. You can make these cookies in any size you desire, but watch that you don’t make them too small because it can be hard to do the small amount of detail work they need if you don’t have the space you need. I prefer to make them larger than a normal round cookie (I usually do a 2.5″ circle) and use a 3.5″ round cutter. I feel like football snacks and treats are supposed to be big and filling, don’t you? Plus, the larger size will make the detail work I mentioned earlier a real breeze.

Materials Needed for Football Stadium Sugar Cookies

• Sugar cookies, baked and cooled. You can find my favorite recipe here, or just scroll down to the bottom of this post!
• 3.5″ round cookie cutter, available here on Amazon.
• Royal Icing, multiple colors all at a medium consistency (between flooding and piping). If you’re new to cookie decorating, check out my beginner tutorial here. For the recipe, check the bottom of this post!
  • Green
  • White
  • Yellow, small amount
  • Brown, small amount
• Royal icing, piping consistency
  • White, small amount
• Multicolored nonpareils
• Small cookie decorating tools kit, like this one available on Amazon.
• Countertop fan to speed drying times (optional but recommended).

Begin by baking up all your cookies. Once they’ve completely cooled, line them up on a counter. Using the etching needle from your cookie decorating kit, or a toothpick if you don’t have the kit yet, scratch a line across the surface of your cookies at right about the middle of the circle. This will help you keep your lines straight when you start icing them- if you’re anything like me, lines can get a bit sideways before you even realize it!

TIP: Use a ruler to keep your lines straight when you scratch them into the cookie surface. If you don’t like where you placed the line, press it back down into the surface of the cookie with your fingertip and try again. Stop the line of about 1/4″ from the edge of the cookie so that it won’t be visible after decorating.

Now pick up your green icing and a #3 tip. Completely fill the bottom half of the cookie, up to the line you scratched into the surface. Use your etching needle again to help get the green right up to both ends of the line if you need to.  Allow the green icing about half an hour under the fan to harden up (double this if you don’t use a fan).

Grab your brown icing and a #1 tip. Working one cookie at a time, fill in the very top of your cookie with brown, making use of that etching needle again to get the shape the way you want it. As soon as you’re done with the brown, take up the yellow icing (#1 tip) and pipe three dots right into the brown to create some stadium floodlights. These yellow additions should settle into the brown icing in about 30 seconds all by themselves so try not to poke them or shake your cookie, we want to minimize any possible color bleed. Hang on to that yellow icing and pipe a small line right across the middle of your cookie, right up against the edge of the green. Now put all the cookies under the fan and let them harden for about an hour.

Now it’s time for a bit of fun! Working one cookie at a time, fill the rest of the undecorated area with white icing and place it at the bottom of a bowl with high sides. Shake the multicolored nonpareils right onto the cookie, making sure to cover all the white icing. Give each cookie a gentle tap to dislodge any loose nonpareils and place it on the counter while you move on to the next cookie.

TIP: Nonpareils bounce around like crazy when you sprinkle them! Using a high sided bowl should keep 99% of them contained and off your floors and counters!

All we have left to do now is a little bit of detail work. Find your white icing mixed to a piping consistency and grab a #1 tip. Start at the center of your cookie, right under the middle of the yellow pipe. Pipe straight down the green icing to the bottom of the cookie. If you have a hard time with straight vertical lines, turn the cookie sideways and do it horizontally. Now add two more angled lines to each side of the center line, keeping them evenly spaced at the top but with increasing distance between them at the bottom.

Finally, pipe the 50 yard line by placing a ‘5’ on the left side of the center line and the ‘0’ on the right side of the center line. And then you’re done! I told you these were easy… a total score… a touchdown, if you will permit me the pun! Don’t forget to go for the 2 point conversion in the comments, and let me know your thoughts or help you with any questions! Until next time, keep on moving those decorating chains and, as always, happy baking!

Foolproof Sugar Cookies

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

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

Royal Icing (piping consistency) from ButFirstCookies.com

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

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).