Harry Potter Sugar Cookies
My best friend is getting married in July and I was invited to her bachelorette party. The party was Harry Potter (HP) themed and we spent most of the weekend at Harry Potter world in Universal Studios in Orlando. To celebrate, I brought Harry Potter sugar cookies with bachelorette-themed messages. I was super excited to make these because I have loved the Harry Potter series since I was in third grade. I made a bunch of different designs to celebrate.
***This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you click a link and purchase something. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Click to see my full disclosure policy.***
Materials:
- Cookie cutters
- Royal icing, divided and tinted with gel food colorings.
- Colors needed: Red, yellow, blue, green, ivory, pink, and white
- Disposable decorating bags1
- Couplers and tips #2 and #1
- Toothpicks
- Black edible food marker
When I decorate sugar cookies, I prefer to have all of my icing (except any icing that I am using for details) to be one consistency, so I don’t have a million icing bags (i.e., one stiff outline bag and one flooding consistency bag for each color). When adding water for this consistency, you will be looking for an icing that can hold its shape (for the most part) but is also able to heal a little (i.e., the icing settles after a few seconds to leave a smooth layer). It can sometimes be a difficult consistency to reach. If you are new to cookie decorating, I would highly suggest using the outlining and flooding consistency icings first and then try decorating with one consistency2.
Coloring icing:
Start with the white royal icing you previously made and add a few drops of your desired icing color. Mix thoroughly so that there are no longer any streaks. It’s kind of hard to see in these pictures since I took the pictures of ivory, but the final picture does not have any streaks of white icing remaining. I forgot to take pictures of the other colors when I was making them (sorry!).
Preparing the icing bag:
Next, grab a piping bag, a coupler (the white parts in the picture), and a piping tip. I like to use smaller tips when decorating cookies, so I have more control. Place the cone part of the coupler inside the piping bag and push it down to the tip. Use the coupler as a guide for where to cut the tip of the bag. It should be cut just above where the tip will sit. If you cut too much off of the tip, it will be difficult to close the coupler around the hole and you will likely have icing squeeze out above the coupler instead of only at the tip.
Next, place the tip onto the cone part of the coupler and screw the circle part of the coupler onto the threads of the cone. Use a #1 tip for details and writing. Use a #2 tip for flooding. Once the bag is prepared, pour in the icing. You can hold the piping bag in one hand and scoop the icing in with the other or you can place the piping bag into a cup and pour the icing into it. The second method is nice because it allows you to use both of your hands to get the icing into the bag. Make sure to not fill the bag too full (i.e., more than ¾) otherwise the icing will squeeze out of the top of the bag when you are piping. This makes a huge, sticky mess.
Close the bag by gently squeezing the top of the piping bag and turning (like how you would close a bag to use a twist tie). Now you are ready to pipe!
Piping the Harry Potter Sugar Cookies:
Start by creating an outline around the edge of the cookie. When making an outline, do not touch the tip to the cookie because it will cause a wobbly, rather than straight line. If using two different consistency icings, use the outline consistency for the outline and then switch to the flooding consistency to cover the middle. If using my method, immediately fill in the middle with the same icing you used to make the outline.
Use a toothpick to fix any imperfections or to help the icing fill the background. You can also gently shake the cookie to encourage “healing.”
Royal Icing Transfers:
For one of my cookie designs, I also wanted to make a royal icing transfer for a bottle label that I could add on top of the dry cookie background. To make a royal icing transfer, draw/trace the design you want onto parchment paper and then flip the parchment paper over so that the marker/pencil does not touch the icing. Next, pipe the icing onto the parchment paper.
Allow the cookies and royal icing transfers to dry overnight before adding the remaining details.
Finishing the Cookies:
Most of the designs that I made required words to be piped. I briefly considered making royal icing transfers for all of the messages, but I decided that it would be easier to pipe or write them onto the cookies. To make piping the designs a little easier, I used a projector app on my phone to get the outline of the letters. There was a learning curve with using this app so give yourself some time to practice off of your cookies first (e.g., pipe onto parchment paper, a royal icing transfer, or a spare cookie). If you would like to learn more about how to use this app, you can see my post here.
This is an example of some of my early attempts to make an outline. Notice on the red cookie that I had to scrape my first attempt off and then retry. My later cookies (e.g., the yellow cookie) looked much better.
Above, is the template that I used for my cookies. I have saved it as a pdf because I downloaded multiple fonts that are not default fonts on Microsoft Word. Feel free to download the file and use it to decorate your own cookies.
Finally, here are some pictures of the finished products. I love how they turned out and I was really happy that I could make so many different designs for the bachelorette party. Leave me a comment down below if you can think of any other cute messages for an HP themed party!
Click the links below if you would like more information on:
Notes:
- Some cookie decorators like to use plastic squeeze bottles or even Ziploc bags instead of disposable piping bags. Try out the options and find what works best for you. (Back to “Materials“)
- If making two consistencies for piping, make sure to color the original consistency first, then split the icing into two bowls and begin to add water. This allows the color to be consistent across both consistencies. (Back to “Materials“)
