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Festive Decorative Cookies

Fun, festive, and frightfully delicious! These Halloween sugar cookies are the perfect creative bake to celebrate the spooky season, buttery, crisp, and topped with colourful icing for ghosts, pumpkins, bats and more. Whether you’re baking with little ones or gifting to friends, they’re as joyful to decorate as they are to eat.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Servings: 15 cookies (approx 58g each)
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 275 g plain flour, sifted gluten-free if required
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 100 g caster or golden caster sugar
  • 75 g slightly salted butter, diced room temperature
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 1-2 tsp vanilla bean paste depending on your preference
For decoration
  • 750 g sugar-paste (fondant) icing (a mix of white, orange , black, green or your chosen colours)
  • royal icing writing tubes
  • sprinkles
  • 2 tbsp apricot jam
  • icing sugar for rolling the fondant

Equipment

  • 3 baking trays lined with parchment paper

Method
 

  1. Preheat oven to 170°C fan / 325°F / Gas Mark 3.
  2. Line three large baking trays with parchment (or lightly grease).
  3. Put flour, baking powder and sugar into a mixing bowl. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
  4. Make a well in the centre, add egg, golden syrup and vanilla paste. Mix until a smooth dough forms (add a little extra flour if sticky).
  5. Wrap dough in cling film and chill for 30 minutes or you can refrigerate the mixture until needed.
  6. Lightly flour a sheet of baking parchment. Place dough on top, dust with a little flour, cover with another parchment sheet and roll out to about 5 mm (½ cm) thick.
  7. Stamp out shapes with festive cookie cutters — ghost, pumpkins, bats, (trees, stars, angels, snowmen, etc if another festive season).
  8. If making hanging decorations, cut a small hole at the top using a straw.
  9. Gather and re-roll trimmings to use all the dough.
  10. Arrange cookies on greased or lined baking trays, about 5 cm (2 in) apart.
  11. Bake for 12–15 minutes until golden and firm but not too dark.
  12. Leave on tray for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.
  13. Warm apricot jam in a small pan until runny (add a few drops of water if too thick), then cool slightly.
  14. Roll the fondant icing to about 3 mm (⅛ in) thick. Cut shapes using the same cutters as for the cookies.
  15. Brush a thin layer of jam on each cooled cookie.
  16. Gently lift the sugar-paste shapes with a palette knife and place on top. Smooth edges with your finger.
  17. If you made holes for hanging, pierce again through the fondant while soft.
  18. Add sprinkles, pipe details or wording with royal icing.
  19. Let decorated cookies dry overnight so the fondant and icing set before threading ribbon or string for hanging.
  20. Enjoy!
  21. When making this recipe, I’d LOVE to see how you get on so either send me a photo to lisa@myrelationshipwithfood.com or post a picture to Instagram using the #myrelationshipwithfood and tag @myrelationshipwithfood

Notes

Lisa’s Tip - These biscuits are also perfect for Christmas or Chanukah. They’re a wonderful family activity — children can help mix, cut and decorate. Packed in a festive tin, they also make a thoughtful homemade gift.