
Gilded Reindeer and Santa Cookies




Gilded Reindeer and Santa Cookies
- 1 recipe The Perfect Gingerbread Cookie
- 2 recipes Royal Icing
- AmeriColor gel paste colours in Gold (Super Red)
- Food marker in black
- Luster Dust in gold (see Notes)
- Sixlets in Pink (for the reindeer noses)
- Candy beads in pink (for Santa's nose)
- Petal Dust in pink or red (for Santa's cheeks)
- White nonpareils (for Santa's pom pom)
You will also need:
- Disposable medium-sized pastry bags
- Couplers
- Pastry tips #3 (20)
- 2 food-safe small paint brushes
- Roll out the cookie dough using the santa and reindeer cutters, and bake according to recipe. Let cool completely. Prepare the Royal Icing and keep well-covered with plastic wrap.
- Tint about 1 1/2 cups of icing gold using using AmeriColor gold gel paste. Add a few drops of water and stir until the icing flows with a 10-second consistency (a line run through the icing with a knife with disappear in 10-seconds). Fill a pastry bag fitted with a coupler and #3 pastry tip with about 3/4 cup of gold icing and cover the remaining gold icing with plastic wrap. Pipe the antlers on each reindeer.
- Use the black food marker to outline the shape of Santa's face on each cookie. Add a drop of red gel paste to the remaining gold icing to create a skin-tone icing. Add the icing to another pastry bag fitted with a coupler and another #3 tip, and outline and fill each Santa face using the black marker outline as your guide.
- Fill another two-thirds full with pastry bag fitted with a #3 tip with 10-second consistency white icing and outline and fill the entire reindeer below the antlers. Let dry completely, overnight if possible.
- Use the same white icing to outline and fill Santa's beard and rim of his hat. Let dry completely, overnight if possible. Reserve the remaining royal icing and keep covered with plastic wrap.
- Once the cookies are dry, tint about 1 cup of 10-second icing red and fill another pastry bag fitted with a #3 tip no more than two-thirds full. Outline and fill Santa's hat and let dry.
- Mix a small amount of the gold luster dust with clear extract or vodka, and use a food-safe paint brush to paint the reindeer antlers. Use the black food marker to draw on the reindeer's eyelashes and Santa's eyes.
- Use another small food-safe paint brush to dust on a very tiny bit of red or pink petal dust onto Santa's cheeks.
- Use the thicker, un-thinned reserved royal icing to "glue" on the pink sixlets for the reindeer's nose. Fill a pastry bag fitted with pastry tip #20 (or similar) with about 1 cup of reserved icing and pipe Santa's moustache. Add a pink candy bead nose by pressing into the top of each moustache. Pipe a dollop of frosting on the top of Santa's hat and sprinkle with white nonpareils.
- For the cookie shapes I used the Meri Meri Jingle All The Way cutter set.
- For the eyelashes and Santa's eyes, I used the AmeriColor Food Writer in Black.
- Just a note that, depending on where you live, there are different regulations about using pure gold luster dust in terms of being "edible" and "non-toxic." For gold luster dust that is deemed "edible" I recommend Chocolats Roxy & Rich Lustre Dust in Golden Bronze
.
- I used pink CK Products Sixlets
for the reindeer noses.
- For Santa's nose I used CK Products Pink 7-Mm Candy Beads.