Once a year, everything becomes just a little more special. Families gather together to celebrate, good food is shared, and memories are made. No, it’s not Christmas… it’s Shark Week! Did you know Shark Week officially began in 1988? I can’t remember a summer without it, honestly. And as it’s only gotten bigger as the years roll on, it’s become a real event in some people’s summer schedules. One of them is my very own sister. So when she came for a visit over the weekend, it seemed obvious that if we were going to make anything that weekend, it was going to be shark themed!
Maybe you’ve seen those cute cupcakes in the store decorated with the blue frosting and a shark fin stuck in them? I wanted to do something like that but with cookies, since I had just made strawberry lemonade cupcakes the previous weekend. But how, exactly? It ended up being something that I made happen on the fly, and was particularly fun because I definitely don’t own a ‘shark fin’ cookie cutter, nor a bitten life preserver. You probably don’t either, but no worries- I have a fun work around for both of these shapes!
All you really need for your shark fin cookie is a 3″ circle and a long pointed shape. I almost used a seagull wing, but then realized that an ice cream cone shape was absolutely perfect for this project. And an ice cream cone (available here on Amazon) is actually more versatile than you might think- turn it upside down and you have an elf, or a person in a party hat, or all manner of celebratory people, so it’s not a bad shape to have in your inventory. When it comes to your life preserver, a donut and a flower cutter combine to create the ‘bite’ illusion. I’ll take you through each of these cookie designs separately below.
What You’ll Need For Shark Week Sugar Cookies
- Sugar cookies (recipe at the bottom of this post) cut, baked, and cooled.
- Royal icing (recipe at the bottom of this post) in white, gray, red, and blue. (Gel food colors available here on Amazon)
- 4 decorating bags and #2 tips for each
- A small craft paintbrush
- Wilton food grade markers (available here on Amazon)
- About 1 dozen toothpicks, broken in half *optional*
- A counter top fan to speed drying time
If you need a refresher on royal icing or if you are a newbie, visit my tutorial post here where you can find everything you’ve ever wanted to know about how to decorate with royal icing. If you have a good handle on what you’re doing already, mix these colors to a medium consistency. I find that the sweet ‘medium’ spot is to thin the icing until it disappears back into the icing about 5 seconds after being dripped back into the bowl.
Let’s start with the shark fin cookie! Begin by cutting your circles and creating your shark fin. To make the fin, simply cut the normal ice cream cone shape. Cut the ‘ice cream’ off at the thickest part of the cookie cutter, so that you’re left with just the cone and a bit of a base. Turn it upside down and gently bend the cone until it’s shaped like a shark fin. Gently place the shaped cookies on your baking sheet and bake as normal. One they’re cooled, you’re ready to decorate! Begin by flooding your shark fin with gray royal icing and allowing it to dry fully- about 2 hours under a fan on the counter. You want these to be solid because you’ll have to handle them in the next step.
To get your shark fins to stand up straight, you’ll need to approach it like you would a gingerbread house and use royal icing like cement to hold the pieces together. Squeeze two thick lines of white incing onto the center of your round cookie and press your fin into it. Because I am terrible at gingerbread houses (maybe this is something I can try again at Christmas time!) I decided to create a bit of ‘scaffolding’ for my fins with toothpicks. All I did was break each toothpick in half and press the ends lightly into the round cookie and then into the back of the fin while they dried. I’m happy to report that I didn’t have one fin fall over with this method! Give them time to dry and then remove the toothpicks.
Next, grab your blue icing bag and pipe a circle all around the cookie and fill in the middle, taking care to hide the white icing holding the fin in place. You can let this smooth out and settle for about an hour. Once the blue icing is solid, grab the same bag again and pipe two thick lines on the front of the cookie and two more on the back of the cookie. Use the small craft paintbrush to pull the icing outward and begin moving it in swirled shapes as it dries. You don’t want very sharp edges, so instead aim for flowing water. As soon as you have the icing the way you want it, put it right back in front of the counter top fan to help the shape set without melting back into itself.
For the last step, take up the white icing again and pipe several white spots into some of the wave tops. Use your paintbrush to smooth the white icing to create the feeling of some whitecaps on the waves. Put the cookies back under the fan for about an hour or until set.
Now let’s move on to the life preserver. If you just did the shark fin steps, these cookies will seem like a piece of cake! Begin by cutting out the donut shapes. Grab your flower cookie cutter and press it into the side of the donut shape, being careful to leave enough of the donut there so that the dough doesn’t tear when you move the shape onto the cookie sheet to bake. About 1/4″ inch should be plenty. Bake as usual, but keep an eye on that thin area to make sure it doesn’t burn.
Once the cookies are baked and cooled, flood the entire shape with white icing. Allow them about 2 hours under a fan to harden. Now pick up your red icing bag and pipe four rectangular shapes onto the life preserver. I think it looks best to place at least one of the red accents somewhere in the bite area. Once again, give the cookies about an hour to dry before moving on to the next step.
It’s time to name your vessel! I went for the obvious choice of “Orca”, the ship from Jaws, but you should use whatever you enjoy. Use the black food marker to write the name in between two of the red accents, and then the blue food marker to make a star on either side of the name. Food markers dry quite quickly, so this design should be ready to go a few minutes after you’re done writing. That’s it!
Well, there you have it. Shark Week sugar cookies. Make sure to chat with me in the comments below if you have any thoughts or questions. Until next time, stay safe on land (or sea!) and 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).
Love the sharks!
Thanks very much!