Today I’m sharing another cookie that I never would have made if not for someone asking me to do so… and oh man, is it a cute one. If you’ve spent any amount of time staring at cookies on Pinterest or Instagram (I can’t be the only person to do this, right?) then you’ve most likely run across your share of adorable fox cookies. They range from super simple to terribly intimidating in complexity. For this post, I split the difference between the two extremes in a way that still looks like a very visually appealing cookie design but can actually be accomplished by a normal motivated human. If you’re a beginner, it’s okay! Before you assume this one is too hard, take a look at the actual steps- it’s easier than it looks! Let’s get foxy!
As a cookie decorator, one of my favorite designs is one that looks complex but doesn’t require a whole lot of prep work, and this one fits that bill. You’ll only need two colors: orange and white, along with a black food marker. You’ll see I’ve embellished my foxes with little bows (the cookies photographed for this post were destined for a baby shower!) but you can either leave your foxes bow-less or make whatever type of extra decoration you like. If you start decorating these cookies in the morning, you should easily be able to accomplish the entire design in a single day, even after factoring in all the drying time.
What You’ll Need for Forest Fox Sugar Cookies:
- A fox shaped cookie cutter. The one that I used is available on Amazon here as part of an adorable woodland creature set. The set is a really good value for so many quality cookie shapes, I really recommend it!
- Sugar cookies, baked and cooled. You can check out my detailed walkthrough here, or scroll to the bottom of this post to find the recipe itself.
- Royal icing in orange and white. You want the consistency for both to be thick enough to pipe edges with, while thin enough to flow together inside the shape- a good benchmark is icing that, when dripped back into a bowl on itself, disappears almost completely in about 10 seconds. Any extra colors for embellishment should be at piping consistency. Use a #2 tip on your icing bags, and grab two #1 tips for later.
- A black food grade marker. They’re available on Amazon as part of a handy set.
- An icing etching needle (scribe tool) to help guide your icing into tight areas. These are also on Amazon as part of a basic recommended decorating set.
That’s all you’ll need! Now that you’ve gathered your supplies and baked your cookies, let’s start decorating!
The first parts of the cookie that you’ll want to address are the white areas- the tip of the tail, the face, and the belly. It can be kind of difficult to place these sections in the right spot by eyeballing it, so I recommend that you sketch out your design directly on your cookie. You may not need to draw it on all of them, after a few cookies muscle memory may kick in and you won’t need a guideline, but definitely give yourself a hand by drawing the first few. You can use your food grade marker- I use the very tip of it to make the thinnest line possible. Be careful to not draw all the way to the edge of your cookie in case the icing doesn’t cover it later.
Draw a non-symmetrical edged shape at the end of the tail. Next, sketch the face by making two arches that begin at the corners of the face area and meet at a sharp dip in the middle. The center of the fox’s chin should be about half an inch under the point of the dip. Finally, create the leg shape by following the line of the fox’s tail as it would continue across the body on one side, and then mimic it on the other leg’s edge. Basically, you want them to have a slight ‘lean’ inward, not straight up-and-down legs. Round the bottom of the legs to save space for the fox’s paws. Once you have the legs how you like them, you can make two half circles on either side of them for the fox’s belly. Now that you have all your white shapes outlined, go ahead and grab your white icing bag and fill in those areas. You can use your etching needle to pull the icing into sharper points at the ends of the tail and corners of the face if needed. Allow about 2 hours to dry under a counter top fan.
Next, you’re going to fill in the orange areas- but in steps. You’ll want to start with the face area. After you fill in the face, quickly grab your white icing bag again and drop a white dot over each ear- it will sink into the orange, easy peasey. The only truly ‘tricky’ part of the cookie, if you want to call it that, is what comes next. You want to create the appearance of two distinct legs that both connect smoothly to the same body shape. You can do this! Start by piping the bottom left paw and left leg (one line should do it)and then around the left side of the body and under the chin. Take a moment to fill in that area, and then continue down the right side of the body. After another moment to fill in that shape, continue downward from the body and make the right leg and paw. The goal is that enough time will have passed between making the left and right legs that the two will remain separate, but that the body will flow as one shape. Again, use your etching tool to push the icing into any hard to reach corners.
After you’ve completed both the face and the body, all that’s left is to fill in the tail. Make good use of your etching needle to guide the orange icing into the crevices of the fox’s white tail tip. Allow another two hours under the fan for the icing to harden, and then add any embellishments you would like to the head area. Swap the #2 tip on your orange icing for a #1 and pipe two lines on the outsides of the fox’s legs to create some definition. Finally, use your black good grade marker to draw two eyes on the white part of the face and a nose at the bottom of the pointed orange snout.
And there you have it! Forest fox sugar cookies! Make sure to write me a note in the comments if you have any questions that I can answer for you, and to let me know how your own cookies turned out! 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.
