Decorated Cardinal Cookies

I’ve always wanted to make cardinal cookies, but I’ve never been able to find quite the right cutter.  This year, I decided to make it happen.

Cardinal Cookie SweetsugarbelleIt took a little thought, but when it finally hit me I was super excited…and a little sad I hadn’t thought of it earlier.  I made this cookie using  a simple egg trimmed with a heart.  If you want a curvier bird, a flip-flop works well too.

Cardinal Cookie CutterLike many of my cookies {on a good week} my cardinals started out as a sketch.  If you’re not a sketcher, try it sometime.  It often saves time and frustration during the decorating process.

Simple Cardinal SketchOnce the cookies are baked, use a food color marker a smaller egg cutter to draw wings on each cookie.  This is a great way to create uniform cookie designs without a projector.

Decorated Cardinal Cookie 1To decorate these cookies you will need:

  • Black 20-second icing
  • Light red outline and flood icing
  • Dark red piping 20-second icing {just a small amount}
  • Yellow piping icing
  • White piping icing

Begin by using black icing to create a face.

Decorated Cardinal Cookie 2Once the face has had time to dry, outline and flood the body {excluding the wing} with light red.

Decorated Cardinal Cookie 3When the lighter red icing has set, use the darker red shade to fill the wing.

Decorated Cardinal Cookie 4Finish up with a few small details:

  1. Pipe a beak using a #3-4 tip
  2. Add a small white dot to form an eye
  3. Add a fun little swirl of icing to the wing {optional}

Decorated Cardinal Cookie 5Mix with other fun designs to create a pretty platter.  I was inspired by Lizy B Bakes and Flour de Lis to add snow cookies and sweet dotty trees.

Cardinal Cookie Platter Sweetsugarbelle.comIf you’re interested in the front facing birdies, I used this Wilton Christmas cutter that I picked up at Walmart.  For more inspirational cookies, check out these posts: