Happy August, everyone! I love this month for so many reasons- but most of all because it means my favorite season, FALL, is on the way! But let’s make hay while the sun shines and continue on in the Maine sugar cookies series. Last time we made vintage lobster license plates, and today we’ll be working two of Maine’s most recognizable residents, lobsters and sea gulls!
When you think of Maine there’s probably nothing that comes to mind faster than a lobster, right? If you’re going to make Maine-themed cookies, it’s pretty much a no-brainer that a lobster is going to have to be in the mix. And if you’ve ever sat out in the Maine sun, enjoying a lobster roll and minding your own business, you’ve probably seen seagulls by the dozen as well, so I knew I had to include those guys as well! What’s particularly nice about these two designs is that they are both pretty darn low-effort to create, but they look amazing together or with the rest of the Maine set. Or you could put them together with another excellent Maine dessert, the Whoopie Pie! No matter what you decide, you’ll have a hit on your hands.
Materials Needed for Lobster & Seagull Sugar Cookies
- One batch sugar cookies, baked and cooled (see recipe at bottom of this post, or linked here)
- Royal Icing in white, red, gray, black, and orange (see bottom of this post for recipe, or linked here)
- Lobster cookie cutter (available here on Amazon)
- Seagull cookie cutter (available here on Amazon)
- Gel food coloring (basic color set available here on Amazon)
- Small craft paintbrush
- Counter top fan, to aid in drying time
Let’s tackle the lobsters first, and then move on to the birds. Begin by cutting, baking, and allowing your lobster shapes to cool. While you wait, make one batch of royal icing. If you’re a beginner, follow this tutorial that splits cookie flooding into two steps. If you’re a bit more seasoned, you can combine outlining and flooding your cookies by mixing your icing to a medium consistency between piping and flooding. I find the sweet spot for medium consistency is icing that disappears in about 5 seconds when dripped back into the icing bowl. Tint about 80% of the batch red and the other 20% black and transfer the icing into decorating bags with #2 tips.
Icing Coloring Tip: Gel food coloring will darken over time after it is mixed into the royal icing, so don’t go crazy trying to make a very deep red before you decorate. I usually mix in enough red that the icing is a shade or two lighter than a typical crayon red, and it darkens nicely during and after drying.
Lobsters have very segmented bodies, so even though the entire cookie will be decorated with the same red icing, we’ll be decorating it in stages to create some natural looking body shapes and sections. Start decorating by filling in four separate areas- the two large claws, the head area, and the long tail section. Make sure to leave a little room between the claws and the head, and a good space in the middle between the head and the tail. Leave the cookies to harden about 1 hour under a counter top fan.
When ready, use the red icing to pipe the ‘joints’ between the claws and the head sections- making a small circle shape and then using an etching tool (like this one available in the basic cookie decorating kit) to elongate it works well for me here. Next, pipe a large oval shape between the head section and the tail, using the same technique with the etching tool to push the icing into the shape you want. Finally, pipe the three small sections for the fan at the bottom of the tail. I usually do the middle first, then move on to the rest of the cookies to do the claw/body joints, and then do all the left and right tail fan sections in a row. Give your cookies another hour under a fan to harden.
Now it’s time for a little bit of detail work. Begin by piping 7-8 small dots onto each claw, following up the outside edge of each claw and across the top. If your dots get small points on them, you can use something like the small silicone spatula from the basic decorating kit to ‘tap’ down the tops of the dots about 15 seconds after you’ve piped it.
Now pipe three curved lines across the tail section of the lobster to create a ‘segmented’ tail, and pipe two small black dots- one on either side- of the point at the top of the head shape for eyes. Give the lobsters one more hour under the fan to finished hardening before serving or bagging the cookies.
Let’s move on to the seagulls! Begin by mixing up one batch of royal icing, with about 80% of the batch staying white, 10% gray and 10% orange. Make all icing at a medium consistency, like we did with the lobsters. Flood the entire bird, minus the small beak area, in white. Because you’ll be pressing on this foundation layer of icing with a paintbrush, place the flooded cookies under the counter top fan for at least two hours before moving on to the next step.
Pipe a small dot of orange royal icing onto the beak of the seagull and use your etching tool to push it into shape and to create a nice point at the end of the beak. Now grab your gray icing and pipe a line down the back edge of each wing and across the tail feathers. Working quickly, pick up your small paintbrush and smooth the icing out off the edge of the wing. Small lines from the paintbrush are desirable and help create a ‘feathered’ effect. Once the icing looks the way you want it, allow the icing an hour to dry.
For the next step, squeeze a little black gel coloring into a dish or ramekin and dip just the tip of paintbrush into the dye. Roughly paint the very edge of the gray wing feathers and tail feathers black, making sure to keep the strokes slightly varied so that they look more natural. Finally, pipe a black dot onto the head for the eye. You’re done!
And there you have it- two of Maine’s most famous animal residents. I hope you’re enjoying the Maine series, because we have one more to go- the iconic pine tree across the great Dirigo State itself! Keep up to date by signing up for the newsletter or by searching for “Maine” in the search box above. As always, make sure to visit the comments below if you have any comments or questions that I can help you with! Until next time, wicked happy 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).
