Happy November, bakers! Somehow October charged past me and we’re just a few short weeks away from Thanksgiving! How this happened, I’ll never know. I was just getting my Halloween spirit into swing and now it’s all turkeys everywhere you look. And turkeys are great, don’t get me wrong. But today, we’re going to focus on another animal completely. We’re gonna get our moose on!
Why a moose, you ask? Honestly, it’s because I’ve had a huge run on moose cookies. I had one order for them, posted my finished product on my Facebook business page (which you can find HERE), and then ended up with a whole slew of orders for more. These cookies are doing something right- I’ve sent them to baby showers, to campers, and to an animal shelter in the last month! And the best part is, they’re super easy to make. While experienced bakers can knock these out no problem, they’re also great for you novices and intermediate level people too.
Materials Needed for Moose Sugar Cookies
- Sugar cookies, cut into an angel shape, baked and cooled. You can find my favorite recipe at the bottom of this post!
- Royal Icing: find the recipe at the bottom of this post! If you need an icing tutorial, check out my series here!
– Very light (buff) brown at a medium consistency, with a small amount at piping consistency
– Medium brown (think Crayola brown) at a medium consistency
– Dark brown at a medium consistency, with a small amount at piping consistency
– Black at a piping consistency - Cookie etching needle. Find my favorite tiny cookie decorating kit here on Amazon.
- OPTIONAL: Counter top fan to speed drying times
See? Not much to these guys. They are a cookie that you can get done in a few hours if you follow my suggestion to use a fan on your cookies to help the icing set a little bit faster. Let’s get going!
Begin with your baked and cooled cookies. Flip the angel shape upside down so that the wide part of the cookie is at the top and the angel’s head is at the bottom. Ta-da, now it’s a moose! (I used this same trick last Christmas on my Rudolph reindeer cookies!) Start with your medium brown icing (and a #2 tip), and pipe the middle part of the face. Arc across the nose, and up and over the ear. Make another large arc across the top of the head, the other ear, and back down to where you started. Fill the shape and give the cookies half an hour to harden under the fan.
When you’re ready to proceed, grab your light (buff) brown icing (#2 tip again) and flood the entire bottom part of the face to create that big moose-y nose.
Once you’ve gotten the bottoms done, go back to the first cookie and start filling in the bottom halves of the ears and making the antlers with your dark brown icing (a #1 tip this time). Don’t be worried about these antlers, you can make them. Basically, you’re going to visualize making a four fingered hand. For the right side, make three longer antler points and one smaller ‘thumb’ antler farthest to the left. Then go do the left side the same way, smallest ‘thumb’ antler farthest to the right. Now give the cookies another half an hour to harden up under the fan.
Now it’s time for some accents! We’ll tackle the moose nose first. Grab your light brown (buff) icing that is at piping consistency (#1 tip here) and make two small arches just under the top line of the nose to create nostrils. Now pipe a line from the bottom center of the cookie up the side of the nose to make a bit of a moose smile (I’m all about a friendly moose here, not a crazy rampaging moose like I lived in fear of in Maine!). Then use your dark brown piping icing (with a small open star tip) to squeeze a lock of hair between the two antlers.
One more step! Our moose needs some eyes! Using your black piping icing, pipe two small dots for eyes. If they end up having very pointed tops (like a Hershey’s kiss) you can tap them down with a small silicone spatula like the one that comes in the cookie tools kit I recommended up in the ‘Materials’ section. Then swap the #2 tip on your medium brown icing for a #1 tip and pipe two slanted eyebrows above those eyes to make them look a little friendlier!
You’re done! I told you that these take no time at all! If you’re bagging them for gifts, do allow another hour or two under the fan to make sure everything is fully hardened before transport. And don’t forget to let me hear your thoughts and questions down below in the comments. I’m always here to help. Until next time, 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).
