Decorating Santa Face Cookies

Every year I make Santa face cookies when I make my annual cookie tins. I love these Santa face cookies; I usually make a Mrs. Claus to go along with Santa…but this year, I ran short on time, so Mrs. Claus didn’t make the cut (and ended up in the bin instead of the cookie tins).

I have 3-4 different Santa face cutters, but this one is my favorite… I think the shape is a bit more interesting than my others that are simply round at the the bottom of the beard.

To decorate the cookies, I use Royal Icing or Lemon Royal Icing that has been thinned a little with water. I use different consistencies depending on whether I am flooding the cookie with icing or piping the details:

White Icing – 10-second flood consistency and thicker 20-second consistency
Red Icing- 10-second flood consistency
Black Icing: thicker 20-second consistency
Flesh Tone- 10-second flood consistency
- Light Flesh tone= 2 parts Warm Brown + 1 part Ivory.

Start by flooding the main parts of Santa’s face. I like to use Wilton #2 tip when I flood. That way it flows out at a decent rate, but not so fast that it’s too hard to control

I always start with:

his face,
then move to his hat,
and finally fill in his beard:

#1- Flood face with Flesh Tone Icing
#2-Flood hat with red icing
#3- Flood beard with white icing

Since I always make at least 12-20 Santa face cookies at a time, I flood all cookies at once (i.e. flood all the faces, then all the hats, and then finally all the beards)… that way, by the time I finish the beards on all the cookies the faces have had time to set and dry a bit (at least 10 minutes).

When I pipe detail items, I like smaller tips. I have found that PME tips are smaller then Wilton tips in the diameter of the opening. For details, my favorite tips are PME 00, PME 0, and PME 1.

With PME 1 or PME 0 tip, pipe a blob of flesh tone icing to create a round nose for Santa. I just place my tip where I want his nose, and squeeze the bottle/bag of icing until the round mound of icing looks about the right side for a nose (I don’t move the bottle/bag of icing)
Next with PME 00 tip, pipe 2 round eyes with black icing. (again- I just squeeze and release- I don’t move my bottle/bag of icing)
Give Santa some rosy cheeks with Wilton Pearl Dust in a rose color. I use a small dry Wilton food safe paintbrush to swirl some color on his cheeks.
With PME 00 tip- pipe 2 thin white eyebrows above Santa’s eyes. Then with a star tip (i.e. Wilton #13 or #16), pipe a mustache.
Then with PME 00 tip- pipe squiggles in his beard to give some definition. I basically pipe backward 6’s and/or backwards S’s… whatever shapes seem to fit.

#4- Pipe a fat round nose
#5- Pipe 2 small eyes
#6- Put a small amount of pink pearl dust on a plate
#7-With a food safe paint brush, paint rosy cheeks
#8- Pipe eyebrows & mustache
#9- Pipe beard details

After the icing has had time to dry from the prior steps- finish Santa’s hat: Using Wilton Tip #1 (or PME #1), I flood his hat rim and the ball at the top of his hat with white icing. Immediately sprinkle with white sanding sugar.