Snowmen cookies are one of my all-time favorite cookies to decorate with kids. You don’t have to be a super talented pastry chef or know exactly how royal icing works. For these cookies, all you need is a good layer of white royal icing and some cute candy to give it personality. The kids will take care of the creative part and let they imagination shine as they bring their snowman cookie to life.
How to decorate snowmen cookies
Supplies:
- Gingerbread cookie recipe
- Snowman-shaped cookie cutter
- Light blue, blue, red, orange and white royal icing
- Black food-safe marker
- Wilton Holly Mix sprinkles
- Wilton Pearlized Snowflakes sprinkles
- Turkey lacer or toothpick
- Parchment or waxed paper
- Snowman nose template
Step 1: Bake your cookies
Start by baking your cookies. This is a good time spice things up with a gingerbread cookie recipe or you can use your sugar cookie recipe.
Make the cookie dough and cut out the snowman shapes. Bake the cookies according to the recipe directions. Let the cookies cool before you begin decorating.
Step 2: Fill the snowman’s body
Once the snowmen are cool, outline each of the snowmen’s body with white royal icing. Let dry for 10 minutes. Since my cookies have space for a hat, I excluded that part in the outline.
Next, flood the snowmen’s bodies with the white royal icing. Fill the cookies but be careful to not overfill them or the icing will run over the side.
Step 3: Fill the remainder of the cookie
If there are any spaces left on your cookie, now is the time to fill them with royal icing.
For example, I next outlined and flooded the center of my hat with sky blue royal icing.
Then, while the blue royal icing was still wet, I added white dots to give it a little character. Then I let the icing on the cookie dry completely.
Finally, I flooded the ball and the brim of the hat with the light sky blue royal icing and let it dry until the top layer of the icing crusted over (approximately 10-20 minutes).
To give it some texture, I gently poked holes with the turkey lacer (a toothpick could work here, too). But be careful! If you let the icing dry too long this technique with not be effective. This is a simple technique and it makes the cookies like you’ve spent a lot of time decorating them. Only we will know how easy it is!
Step 4: Add the carrot nose
Print my snowman nose template and tape the printed paper to something flat (like the back of a baking sheet). Cover the paper with waxed or parchment paper and tape it into place, making sure the paper is completely flat.
Pipe the noses with orange royal icing. Let them dry completely before you removing them from the waxed paper. Once they are dry, carefully remove them by peeling back the waxed paper. Some noses may break — I recommend making more than you need! If you have extra, store them in an airtight container away from the sun.
Use a small amount of white royal icing to glue the snowman’s nose in place.
Step 5: Add sprinkles for buttons
The Wilton Pearlized Snowflakes make adorable little buttons. Of course, there are countless sprinkles that could work, so let the kids pick out the shapes they want to use to decorate their cookies. I saw some cute candy canes that would make adorable buttons and decorations for the hats!
Once you’ve picked which sprinkles you’ll use for the buttons, arrange them down the snowman’s middle like buttons.
Step 6: Draw the eyes and mouth
Make the eyes and the mouth with a black food-safe marker or black royal icing. Just be sure the white icing is dry so you don’t damage it.
For the snowman’s cheeks, make red royal icing dots on a piece of parchment paper. Let them dry and carefully remove them. Make them at least 24 hours in advance so they’ll be dry when you’re ready to add them.
Step 7: Add the final details
Finally, add on any final decorative details you like! For my snowman cookies, I used a small amount of white royal icing to glue holly sprinkles to the brim of the hat.
Let your snowmen dry completely before you package or stack them.
I think the kids are going to love making these snowmen cookies and giving them as gifts. It will make them proud to show people how much they like making special gifts for people in their lives.
