Aloha, bakers and decorators! Did you miss me? June was crazy in my world and I didn’t get many posts done for you guys, which makes me sad! I was all ready to get restarted on July 1st, but then our air conditioning went out and my kitchen was way too hot to bake for over a week. Long story short, everything’s fixed and I’m back on schedule. No matter what happens in my little world, the summer rolls onward and we have to celebrate it while it lasts. Nothing quite says summer like Hawaiian beach fun, right? If you’ve always wanted to have a luau in your own kitchen, then today’s your lucky day! We’re about to bake on Island Time!
Something I really like about these cookies is that they only need a few colors but end up looking so darn colorful anyway. You can get all of these designs done in one day, which is always a plus in my baking book! These cookies end up having a little bit of something for everyone- a bit of scribe needle work, a touch of airbrushing, and a dose of floral embellishment. Don’t be intimidated by any of it, it’s all easy work! We’ll focus this post on the surfboards and shirts, with a post to follow for the beach balls and board shorts.
First things first- I made these cookies with an assist from my airbrush machine- click here to learn how to airbrush, and to read why it’s such an awesome and versatile tool have have in your decorating arsenal. With that said, you can absolutely make these particular cookies without using an airbrush, they will just lack a bit of the finer detail. The airbrush I recommend, available here at Amazon, comes with a whole set of dye colors that are ready to use, with no need to dilute or fuss with the colors.
Materials Needed for Hawaiian Summer Sugar Cookies
- Sugar cookies, baked and cooled. Find my favorite recipe at the bottom of this post or explained in detail here!
- Royal icing in several colors. My recipe is at the bottom of this post, or visit here if you’re a newbie! I like using Americolor food gels, found here at Amazon.
- Sky Blue- medium consistency, and a small amount at piping consistency
- Red- medium consistency, and a small amount at piping consistency
- White- medium consistency, and a small amount at piping consistency
- Yellow- medium consistency
- Hawaiian themed cookie cutters- I used the set from Ann Clark set on Amazon for the surfboard and board shorts, and the shirt cutter found here! You’ll also want a round cookie cutter of about 2.5″-3″ across.
- Cookie etching needle, found in this simple toolkit on Amazon.
- Assorted #1, #2, and #3 piping tips
- Counter top fan to speed drying times (optional but recommended)
- Airbrush and airbrush pen, with red, orange and yellow edible dye.
With all that out of the way, let’s get started! Although the summer seems to stretch on and on, we all know it won’t last forever!
Begin by baking up your sugar cookies and allowing them to cool completely. We’ll focus on the shirts first- Keep your etching needle in reach and ready your solid colors (red and sky blue) with #3 tips. Tip your yellow icing bag with a #1 tip. We’re going to be working on these cookies one at a time, and moving quickly once we start each cookie so having a larger flooding tip is helpful. Flood the cookie in red (medium consistency) and quickly grab your white icing (medium consistency). Pipe a small donut shape right onto the wet red icing.
Use your etching needle to gently pull from outside the white donut, through the circle, to the center. You don’t need to scrape the needle on the bottom of the cookie- you want it just deep enough into the icing to shift the white icing into the shape you want. Do this four more times around the circle and you should end up with a flower! This technique is simple, but don’t beat yourself up if it takes a couple tries to master.
Continue to work quickly, making another white circle, pulling the needle though it five times, and moving on to make another circle. You should make about 6-7 in total. Once you’ve completed all the flowers, pick up your yellow icing and make small groupings of three dots on two sides of each flower- the placement can change from flower to flower. Once you’ve finished your yellow dots, you can carefully move the cookie out of your way and under the fan to dry. (I really do recommend a fan for these cookies to minimize color bleed on your flowers.) Repeat the entire process with your next cookie. Once you’ve gotten through half of the shirts, switch to blue instead of red for the base color. Allow all the cookies about an hour under the fan to firm up.
When you’re read to move on, grab the red and blue piping icings and #1 tips. Using the color that matches your shirt, outline all around the edges of the shirt. Then make a collar shape by piping two triangles like in the picture above, and then a line down the center of the shirt. Go back up and fill the triangles, and then make 6 dots down the left side of the line for buttons. Now the cookies go back under the fan to finish drying completely. You’re done with the shirts!
Now it’s time for focus on the surfboards. These are so simple to make but they’re one of my favorite summer themed things I’ve made to date! There’s something about the sunset colors that just whispers summer to me. Begin by flooding your surfboards with the yellow icing, staying as close to the edge of the cookies as possible, and then allowing them about an hour to harden under the fan. When you’re ready to start airbrushing, fill your pen with red airbrush coloring. Airbrush a diagonal line right across the middle of the cookie. Move on to the next cookie.
After you’ve finished all the red, fill the airbrush pen with orange. Airbrush a thinner orange border on either side of the red, allowing some overlap between the colors so that they’ll blend. Once you’ve finished the orange, use a bit of yellow in your pen on the ends of the surfboard to clean up the colors. Now let them all sit under the fan for about half an hour so that all the colors can finish drying.
Let’s embellish the surfboards! Hibiscus flowers are easy to make and have just enough detail to look good without overwhelming all the colors. You can make a hibiscus flower by making five small triangles in a circle, with all the smallest angle points facing inward. Use your white piping icing, and make the outside edges of the triangles just a little bit wavy to imitate petals. This is another simple technique that can take a few tries, so I recommend a bit of practice on a paper towel before you move on to the cookies. After you’ve created the petals, make the flower stamen by arcing a thin line from near the center outward, and then piping five dots around the end.
Lastly, pipe two parallel lines down the middle of the surfboard, stopping just before the flower and resuming just after. Now the cookies go back under the fan to finish hardening completely. You’ve finished!
So, how did these cookies turn out for you? Do you feel a little more tropical already? I hope you had fun and that you’ll stay on the lookout for the second half of my Hawaii themed cookies, coming soon! Make sure to let me know how everything worked out for you in the comments section below, or on my Facebook page! Until next time, stay happy, stay safe, and stay baking!
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).
