Have your cake and cookie, and eat them both! Sometimes an occasion calls for some extra pizzaz, and that's where this adorable dessert mash-up comes in. @thedessertpantry uses our Soft Cloud Cookie Cutter and an array of Custom Cookie Cutters to create a beautiful cake and cookie masterpiece!
*
When most people think of ‘cakes,’ they envision a pretty cake with sprinkles and candles on top. It’s the standard-every-day-don’t-mess-with-a-good-thing type of cake. And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with those simple and beautiful cakes, sometimes a cake just has its own personality and wants to shine a little brighter than others. Many cake artists love to add other dessert elements to cake, such as macarons, flowers, candy, or fruit. These are just to name a few of the many options at our disposable, and I LOVE IT!
However, for this blog, we are going to look at decorating a cake with sugar cookies. And seriously, this is easy-peasy! What I absolutely love about decorating with sugar cookies is that the sugar cookies can be customized to enhance your cake even further. You have so many cookie cutter shapes available, so the sky really is the limit. Check out CookieCutterKingdom if you find yourself in a cookie cutter rut. They have 3000+ cutters to choose from! And if you still aren’t convinced, check this out…at CookieCutterKingdom you can CUSTOMIZE your own cutter! I mean, as a dessert artist, can it get any easier than that??
As you can see, even the addition of just a handful of sugar cookies can make such an impact on your cake and elevate it to a whole new level. Best part is, you have two delicious desserts rolled into one. You are giving your family, friends and/or clients the opportunity to feast on a delicious cake, and cookies too! I don’t know about you but I’d love to have this type of cake for my birthday party! (Email me at sharon@thedessertpantryla.com if you would like the honor!)
What you'll need:
- Baked cake (depending on what you are trying to achieve, it can be frosted or unfrosted…really up to you!)
- Ready-to-go decorated sugar cookies
- 1 cup of royal icing at stiff consistency (CookieCutterKingdom recipe here)
- Decorating bag
- Parchment paper
Directions:
Once you have all these items ready to go, take a good look at your cookies and your cake. You want to be able to decorate them to each other’s advantage. You don’t want to have one overpower the other. These are meant to compliment one another, not overshadow the other dessert item. So envision what you are trying to achieve. Take a moment to decide just where you will be placing the cookies on the cake so that once you begin poking the cookie sticks in, you won’t have any regrets.
It’s important to note that I use stiff royal icing as my ‘glue’ because it will hold its place when dispensed from the decorating bag, and because it is edible. You want those who will enjoy this cake to also be able to enjoy the cookies, so it’s important to make sure that the ingredients used to build this cake are all edible.
So begin by gently placing your cookies face down. Make sure you have the cookie stick placed on a spot on the back of the cookie that will hold it well, but also work for you as you position them on the cake. This is important because you do not want to begin ‘gluing’ your cookie and than change your mind half way through.
Once you are confident in the cookie sticks position, take your decorating bag and cut off the tip of the bag (I find that for these types of simple projects, it is easier to use tipless decorating bags). Now you can secure your cookie stick in two ways: you can 1) place icing on the stick first and then place onto the cookie to hold, or 2) just place the icing directly onto the stick and cookie. Either way will work, it really just depends on how you prefer to do it.
Slowly add the icing, and don’t be shy about using it. You want the icing to firmly hold the cookie stick onto the sugar cookie. Make sure to distribute the icing as much as you can around the cookie stick so it firmly attaches and secures to the cookie. This is important because you do not want the two to separate while drying, or even afterwards. So don’t be shy with the royal icing and lather that cookie up!
As you can see in this photo, the royal icing surrounding the cookie stick still has some ‘space’ around it (evident from the shadows outlining the cookie stick). I prefer a solid coat, and so keep adding icing until you have full coverage and no ‘dents’ or ‘space.’
Here in this photo of all the ready cookies, you can see that the royal icing is solid over the cookie sticks. Once they are all set, make sure to elevate the cookie stick so it is level with the back of the cookie. The royal icing, although stiff, will shift a bit as the cookie stick succumbs to gravity and falls a bit on the opposite end. Elevate the cookie sticks so that you do not end up with crooked sticks, and let dry this way for a few hours.
Once your icing has dried, it’s time for the fun part…decorating the cake! When decorating, place the stick deep enough into the cake to hold properly. Depending on the size of your sugar cookies, they may carry some weight so if you are angling them, it is important to make sure the cookie stick is in deep enough into the cake to hold it.
I hope this sugar cookie cake tutorial is helpful for you! Please tag me @thedessertpantry on Instagram so I can see your amazing creations!
XO,
Sharon