My entire life I’ve been in love with the way Royal icing makes a cookie look. A Royal Iced cookie looks like something straight out of a Martha Stewart Living or BHG magazine. I’ve yearned to perfect this look, telling myself that one day, someday, I’ll be of the Royal Iced caliber. Most bakers in the making settle for the basic cream cheese and buttercream recipes—the kind your mom teaches you to make right before you lick the spoon. Sorry mom, but as wonderful as your buttercream recipes are, I was meant for more. I was meant to be Royal!

I’ll be honest, Royal Icing isn’t the easiest method of icing cookies. In fact, it’s a Royal pain in the butt. But even though my mother raised me on buttercream and spoon licks, she also raised me not to be a quitter. I will perfect my icing recipe. I will pipe the perfect pipe. I will flood the perfect flood. So help me God, I will create the perfect cookie!

To achieve the ghost and candy-corn cookies you see in the above photos, you will need five things:

A Candy-Corn Cookie Cutter
A Tulip Cookie Cutter (you heard me right!)
Black Gel for Ghost Face
Red and Yellow food coloring (for the candy-corn’s yellow and orange stripes)
A Sugar Cookie Recipe and its ingredients (Here is one I recommend if you do not have your own)
A Royal Icing Recipe and its ingredients  (Here is one I recommend if you do not have your own)

Follow the suggested recipes as instructed and viola—the cutest (and happiest) Halloween cookies you’ve ever made!