Summer Fiesta Time: Pinata Cookies!

 

To me, the month of May starts out with a bang - it’s basically the prelude to summer. Summer movies are now rolling out, people are starting to get their BBQ’s ready for backyard parties, and this is all kicked off by Cinco de Mayo. So instead of a siesta (aka nap time), it’s time for a fiesta (aka party time!). We Mexicans love a good fiesta (actually, don’t we all love a good party? Amiright??), and we LOVE food. Our food has a lot of color and variations, and I don’t know about you, but I usually work my way backwards when it comes to a meal. Dessert first, appetizers last. So when dessert is my first dish when celebrating Cinco de Mayo, I naturally make my favorite one – a fiesta sugar cookie.

This tutorial will focus on helping you create your own piñata sugar cookie. While piñatas come in a variety of colors and shapes, we will take the old fashioned-can’t go-wrong-with-the-original piñata. And I will do my best to show you how to create that ‘ruffle’ effect.

So, to get started, we need the tools of the trade! In other words, essential baking tools that you may already have in your kitchen. For this demonstration I am utilizing the 4” CookieCutterKingdom Piñata Cookie Cutter.

 

- Ready-to-go Piñata sugar cookies

- Stiff consistency royal icing (CookieCutterKingdom recipe here)

- Gel food coloring

- Wilton tips #104 (one tip for every color you plan to use)

- Decorating bags and couplers (one of each for each color you plan to use)

- Parchment paper

 

To start off, you want to take your stiff royal icing and combine with the gel food coloring of your choice. If you are planning on making 5 different colors, than you will need 5 different mixing bowls (I know, I know, duh, but had to point it out just in case!). Make sure your color is thoroughly incorporated into the royal icing. Once you have your royal icing all colored, disperse each color into the disposable bags.

 

Let’s take a moment to look at those straight cookie edges. Aren’t they amazing? Anyway! So, as I was saying, I like to have all my royal icing laid out in the manner in which I will be using them. It makes it easier for me, especially if you are using the color twice on one cookie.

 

 

When you are ready to begin icing the cookie, you want to pay attention to the direction in which you have the tip. As you can see below, the top doesn’t match the bottom, and so the method in which you use this tip will determine the method in which the royal icing is distributed.

 

Here I had the larger opening pointed towards the top while I holding it at roughly a 45 degree angle.

 

 

And here I flipped it…I had the larger part of the tip pointing down, and still holding the bag at a 45 degree angle.

 

 

So the way you want your ‘ruffles’ to look will depend on the direction you have the tip placed, as well as the angle in which you hold it. If you have never used this tip before, I highly recommend doing some practice runs on the parchment paper to get accustomed to it. Better to practice on parchment than on the cookie, right? You don’t want to practice on cookies because if you make a mistake…well, you just ‘ruined’ one cookie. Which in my case isn’t a bad thing because I have a garbage disposal (aka my hubby) who is always willing to eat the ‘bad’ cookies. 

 

While photos and words are perfectly fine for demonstrations, I also wanted to give you a video so that you can see this in action. I know it’s a bit fast (sorry!) but that’s what happens when Instagram only allows you a 15 second time slot.

 

 

And Viola! Instant Fiesta cookies for your Fiesta! Easy-Peasy! I hope you found this tutorial helpful for your summer dessert planning, and don’t forget to tag me @thedessertpantry on Instagram if you used this tutorial for your cookies! Adios!

XO,

Sharon
@thedessertpantry