If you want a quick and easy way to decorate a batch of cut-out Seahorse, Shark, and Sand Castle Cookies for your beach party, you can sprinkle on colorful sugar, dip them in cookies 'n cream candy, or top them with peanut butter candy melts and cookie crumbs.
Last week I shared a trick for decorating cut-out cookies using modeling chocolate. Those Palm Tree Cookies I created looked and tasted amazing, but there were admittedly too time-consuming for many of my readers.
So, today, I'm going to share 3 simple ways to decorate your cut-out cookies that can be done really quickly. The finished cookies look really cool too, but they won't take you all day to decorate.
Each technique can be used to decorate cut-out cookies in any shape or size. You can find the cookie recipe at the end of the post and a guide as to how many of each shaped cookie you'll get out of one batch of dough.
Decorate seahorse cookies.
These brightly colored Sugar Coated Seahorse Cookies are crunchy and sweet. Each is simply decorated using colored sugar and a candy eye.
- One recipe of cookie dough makes about 20 ounces.
- If you use a 3-inch seahorse cookie cutter, you'll need about .4 ounces per cookie, so you'll get about 4 dozen cookies per batch of dough.
- You'll need about .1 ounce of colored sugar per cookie for a total of 4.8 ounces.
- You'll also need egg wash (whisk together 1 large egg with 1 teaspoon water.)
- Decorate by adding one candy eye, attached to the cookie using piping gel, candy melts, or frosting.
To make these seahorse cookies, use a seahorse cookie cutter to cut your dough. Pop the cut-out cookie dough in the freezer for 10-15 minutes so the cookies are easier to move.
Brush a seahorse with egg wash and immediately sprinkle colored sugar over entire cookie. Use as many colors of sugar as you'd like.
Move the cookies to a baking pan that is lined with either a clean silicone mat or a piece of parchment paper.
Bake at 350 degrees for 6-10 minutes until the edges just begin to lightly brown.
Remove and allow to cool completely. Use piping gel, candy melts, or frosting to attach a candy eye to each seahorse.
I served these seahorse cookies at a graduation party, so I added a candy clay grad cap to some of them. I used a small silicone mold to create the caps.
Decorate cookies and cream shark cookies.
Crush chocolate cookies into fine crumbs then mix them with melted white confectionery coating (candy melts) to make a grey candy with tiny dark specks to use to top shark-shaped cut-out cookies.
- One recipe of cookie dough makes about 20 ounces.
- If you use a 3-inch shark cookie cutter, you'll need about .3 ounces per cookie, so you'll get about 65 cookies per batch of dough.
- You'll need about .1 ounce of cookies 'n cream candy coating per cookie for a total of 6.5 ounces, but you'll need more in order to easily dip the last few cookies. So melt 8 ounces of white candy melts and stir in ⅓ cup cookie crumbs.
- Decorate with one black candy pearl eye.
Cut out the cookie dough using a shark cookie cutter then bake the cookies for 6-10 minutes at 350 degrees F. Allow the cookies to cool completely.
Melt white confectionery coating and stir in chocolate cookie crumbs. Dip the top of each cookie into the cookies 'n cream candy. Remove and shake off the excess candy. Immediately, while the candy coating is wet, press one black candy pearl onto a cookie creating the shark's eye.
Refrigerate until the candy coating hardens, about 5 minutes.
Once again, I added some candy clay graduation caps to some of the sharks.
Decorate peanut butter sandcastle cookies.
To make these cookies look like they are made of sand, you'll want to top them with peanut butter-flavored candy melts and some cookie crumbs.
- One recipe of cookie dough makes about 20 ounces.
- If you use a 3-inch sand castle cutter, you'll need about .8 ounces per cookie, so you'll get about 25 cookies per batch of dough.
- You'll need about .3-ounce of peanut butter-flavored candy coating per cookie for a total of 7.5 ounces, but you'll need more in order to easily dip the last few cookies, so melt 10 ounces. You can either use 10 ounces of peanut butter candy melts or you can stir 2 tablespoons of peanut butter into 8 ounces of white candy melts.
- Decorate each cookie with about a teaspoon of cookie crumbs, so you'll need about ½ cup of crumbs.
- I used butter cookies, but you could use peanut butter cookies or vanilla wafers too.
Cut out your cookie dough using a sand castle cutter then bake them for 8-12 minutes at 350 degrees F. Allow to cool.
Dip the top of each cookie in melted peanut butter-flavored candy melts then immediately sprinkle with cookie crumbs.
Easy, right?
Supplies
To make these cookies, you'll need some supplies which you can find at Amazon.com (I make a commission from each sale at no extra cost to you.) I couldn't find the exact same seahorse cutter or graduation cap mold, but the one below is pretty close in size and shape to the ones I used.
Variations
If you like these beach-themed cookies, you might also like these
3D Sandcastle Cookies created by Sue from Munchkin Munchies.
Cut out your large odd-shaped cookies and coat them in the peanut butter coating or frosting and then sprinkle on cookie crumbs. To make the actual castle, you can mix shape cake ball dough (a mixture of cake crumbs and frosting), dip it in peanut butter coating and sprinkle on cookie crumbs. Set the castle on the sandy cookie and add some royal icing beach toys. So cute!
Related Recipes
You might also like these other beach-themed recipes.
Sugar Coated Sea Horse Cookies • Chocolate Beach Pails • Butterscotch Crunch Starfish
Sandcastle Lollipops • Caramel Rice Krispie Turtles • Beach Party Popcorn
Under the Sea Popcorn • Beach Ball Cheesecakes • Under the Sea Gumdrops
Caramel Rice Krispie Treat Starfish • Chocolate Sea Shells • Rice Kripie Treat Dolphins
Sugar Coated Sea Horse Cookies • Sugar Coated Sea Horse Cookies • Palm Tree Cookies
Recipe
The perfect cut-out cookie dough that will hold its shape and taste great. These cookies are great for graduation parties, pool parties, or any party you can think of! Create seahorses, sharks, sandcastles, and much more.
- 2 cups all purpose flour plus more if needed
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup butter softened slightly
- ¾ cups sugar
- ¾ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 large egg
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl. Set aside.
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Cream butter and sugar together.
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Stir in vanilla, and almond extract then stir in the egg until well incorporated.
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Add dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
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If the dough is sticky, add a small amount of flour.
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Lightly dust your work surface or non-stick mat with flour.
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Roll the cookie dough out to between a 1/16 inch and ⅛th inch thickness.
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Cut dough using cookie cutters.
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Remove excess dough.
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Freeze cut cookies for 10 minutes.
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Peel off cookies and set on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
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Bake cookies for 6-12 minutes, depending on the size, until the edges are set and the tops look dry.
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Cool cookies completely then decorate using one of the methods in the tutorial.
The calories are based on 36 plain cookies made from this recipe. The number of cookies you get from this recipe will be dependent on the size of your cookie cutters.
Store your cookies in an airtight container for up to a week.
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Karen @ Sugartown Sweets
Yes! Summer is a looong way from over! That leaves us plenty of time to make some of your yummy looking goodies. Those seahorse cookies are so cute but I have a soft spot for anything peanut butter. What an awesome way to decorate your sand castle cookies. Happy Summer Beth!
Beth
Happy summer to you too, Karen. I love peanut butter too and loved those cookies. The heat wave we are having sure reminds me that summer is definitely not over!
The Partiologist
The cookies are just all so cute, the sanding sugar really dresses them up, I really love the bright seahorses!
Beth
Thanks! I loved the bright colors too.