Sugar Skull Cookies

Today is Skull Appreciation Day. A great way to celebrate is with some festive cookies. Heather Walker said "I work at a workers’ co-operative grocery store in Stratford, Ontario and recently we’ve made sugar skull sugar cookies!" Their baker Katelyn made the cookies.

Sugar skull cookies are great for celebrating Dia de los Muertos, and delicious any time. I hope a few of you make some skull cookies, or skull art in celebration of Skull Appreciation Day 2012. If you are in the Philadelphia, PA area, please come by The Mutter Museum TODAY! The Skull-A-Day editors will be there from 10am - 5pm exhibiting over 50 pieces of skull art from last year's event, plus all the skull mail art you wonderful people have sent to The Mutter Museum! Though, I might sneak off for a cookie at some point today...hopefully a sugar skull cookie.

Sunday Simulacra - Version 5.22

With Halloween one day away, here are some skull items that will help you celebrate.

Mathieu took this photo of his Irish coffee, in a bar in Montmartre, Paris. 

Mica (Noah's sister), spotted this in an NYC thrift shop window. Noah said, he is "very tempted to buy it for (his) house".

When I was baking my Pumpkin Skull Cookie, I baked more cookies using the drop method. When I was removing them from the cookie sheet, I noticed this one looked like a skull. This was the first one to be eaten.

Keep sending those pictures in to our submissions address. Just keep in mind that since we only post simulacra once a week it might take a little longer than normal for it to be posted.


“Countdown To Halloween”
1 more day and counting...

Dia de la Abby: #64 Pumpkin Skull Cookies

I love baking and at this time of year, I want pumpkin foods. To help fill both of those loves, I made some special cookies.

Non-baked

Baked

I followed this recipe to make the cookies. I added pumpkin spice to the dough, so the cookies had a little kick to them. I might add a bit of nutmeg to the next batch. They could use a bit more spice. I used mini chocolate chips and regular butterscotch chips to decorate this one. I placed them close together, because I knew they would spread out when baking. I chose to use mini chocolate chips, so I could have better control over the design. After decorating this one, I mixed in a lot of the chocolate and butterscotch chips into the batter, to make more cookies. 

I baked them for a couple minutes longer than the recipe said. I have a gas oven. I recommend checking the thickest ones with a toothpick, at about the 8 minute mark, to see if they need more time. Mine took about 12 minutes. Then, I finished cooking the tops in the broiler for about 20 seconds. That is how I have to bake cookies with my oven. Yours might be different. This is a great cookie to make with kids, as the cookie dough is a bit firm, so decoration with the chips is easy.


Every other Thursday in the 5.0 year, I will post my own Dia de la Abby creations   Every Thursday in the 4.0 year, I posted my Dia de la Abby creations and occasionally tutorials with instructions on how I made my pieces. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project. Need more of me than just a weekly dose, follow me on  Facebook, Google+ and/or Twitter.

Jelly Filled Cookie Skull

Richmond Skull Enthusiast Brandi Murphy told us: “I have been on a jam-filled thumbprint cookie kick and it dawned on me recently that I could make skulls with it. I started with this recipe, then I shaped the skulls, made the teeth with a toothpick, and shoved my thumb in for some eye sockets and a nose. I filled them with grape jelly (although any dark jam/jelly would suffice). I did have trouble with the eyes ‘bleeding’ if I didn't make the sides thick enough.”



Little Jack C says:

C is for cookie! Perhaps it is the temporal aspect of them, but I love edible art. It is rather fitting here that your subject matter is that of the skull once again reminding us of our own temporary nature. Thank you for sharing this Skullinary creativity with us, bloody eyes and all.

Evil Shortbread Skulls

These delectable shortbread skull cookies come from Canadian John Andrews. John professed, "Most were made with love, but some were made with evil".



I can't believe that something so sweet could look so evil. Oh wait, yes I can. Perhaps these shortbread skulls bear a certain resemblance to Cthulu for a reason. No matter the reason, I would chomp those cookies as if it were my job to rub out evil looking cookies. Yeah, that would be a great job. Thanks for sharing the evil baked goods with us, John!

Dia de la Abby #22: Sugar Skull Cookies

I know this is another baking one, but I wanted to make a sugar skull, but in cookie form. Dia de los Muertos is in 4 days, so I thought this was an appropriate time to make these.

Finished Sugar Skull Cookie

Custom Made Skull Cookie Cutters

I have to thank my dad for helping me with this one. Many years ago, he made my mom and me custom heart shaped cookie cutters for Valentine's Day cookies. I couldn't find the skull shape I wanted and also, I wanted these cookies to be 100% one of a kind. He made the cookie cutters out of aluminum, tiny nuts and tiny bolts, based off of skulls I drew for this project.

I used a sugar cookie and a icing recipe to make the dough and hard white icing for the cookies. I wanted the decoration of them to be similar to that of the traditional sugar skulls of Dia de los Muertos. I like the idea of sugar skulls, but don't want to eat something that is basically pure sugar or buy molds for them...because that wouldn't be custom. Sugar cookies seemed like a perfect solution. I'm giving my dad the huge cookie as a thank you for helping and also because my parents are watching our daughter this Saturday. We are going to the Gallery5's Pre-Halloween Dinner Party with Noah, because hanging out with Noah is fun and Skull-A-Day is one of the sponsors. If you would like to know how my dad made the cookie cutters and how I made the cookies, read the handy dandy tutorial.

Every week in the 4.0 year, I will be post my own Dia de la Abby posts as well as a tutorial with instructions on how I made my piece. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project. Need more of me than just a weekly dose, follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Natural Skulls (Helped Along)

A frequent contributor here President Wishnack sent us this: “I just picked up a new job in the Financial District and my office has a nice view of the Bay Bridge. It also has a nice view of this skull skyscraper! This is about 50% real and 50% edited to look like a skull-- but it was close enough that I saw a potential skull before taking it to Photoshop.

Greg from Australia wrote: “When I pulled an Oreo apart, the filling looked like it had eye sockets, so I helped the resemblance along to make an Oreo skull. The picture shows the before and after.”

Manipulated C says:

Inspiration comes in many different ways, seeing something in an alternative composition is just one way in which our minds help us to comprehend the world we experience. Sometimes all it takes is a a little push with our mind to make great things happen. Thank you for submitting your work, and keep pushing greatness.

[CONTEST] Win Skull Cookies!

Our friend Briannaa from Whimzkulls has kindly offered to give away 2 of her absolutely delicious (and you can take my word for it) hand-"skullpted" original design skull cookies (shown below) to each of 3 lucky Skull-A-Day readers!

To be entered in the drawing just leave a comment below saying whose skull you would share your cookies with if you could [NOTE: If you're reading this on Facebook, be sure to leave your comment on the original Skull-A-Day.com post if you want to be actually entered in the contest]

IMPORTANT: Don't forget to include a way to contact you (either an e-mail in the post OR make sure your Blogger profile has an e-mail link for you on it).

You have until just Midnight Eastern Time April 5th to enter so don't delay! [UPDATE] The contest is over. Thanks for everyone who entered! the winner will be announced soon.]

NOTE: If you are out of the US you will need to pay for the additional postage to ship them to you.

And of course you don't have to wait til the end of the contest to get your own cookies from Whimzkulls! Brianna is even offering a bonus cookie of any design with every order!

Good luck!

Tale of the Skull Cookies

Today’s skull features the creation and a creator.

Texans Sandy Bates Bell & Andy Don Emmons collaborated on this project. Sandy wrote: “We enjoy Skull a Day. We have had friends featured on the site (Tom Sale, skull spoons)... we were sugar skulls for Halloween and we made decorated cookies to pass out as part of our costumes. The cookies were a huge hit, many people did not want to eat them but took them home to keep.”

The Creation
and a creatorThe instructions and recipe can be found here for the chipoltle orange shortbread cookies and the royal icing, with step by step decorating instructions.


Lone Star C says:

Your creation is amazing, and is worthy in its own right. However, knowing the story behind it as well seeing its role in your costume is a wonderful addition. Thank you for submitting your bonus costume picture to us as well as directing us towards the recipe on how to make theses tasty skulls ourselves.

[BONUS] Snow Day With Tatman

I wanted to add a bonus post for today since it is a holiday for most people around the world. I'm sure you all saw the excellent snow skull posts by Noah and Citizen Agent(here and here) and I wanted to follow suit, but I had to wait for any kind of snow here in Texas. Well, my wish was granted and we received the snow I needed. I had to take advantage of what we have because Texas doesn't always get snow like this. So I made two....

This is the snow drift skull...



And a snow ball skull...



Also, my wife was in the Skullmas spirit so she made a Santa Skull sugar cookie to wish all of you a Happy Skullidays!

[BONUS] The Gift of Skulls - Whimzkulls!

A big thanks to Briannaa in LA, who sent me a box of her fantastic Whimzkulls cookies!



Not only do they each of these thick frosted cookies (which are about 4 x 4.5") have a uniquely funny face, but they are absolutely delicious (like buttery shortbread)! Brianna has just started selling them online so definitely check out Etsy page if you're in need of a one-of-a-kind treat! I hear there may be some holiday themed ones on the way and she'll even do requests.

Oreo® Skull

Jennifer wrote: “My son, Arlo who is 5 years old, LOVES to make art and he LOVES skulls, so I got him [Noah's] Skull A Day book for Christmas. To say that it's been highly influential has been an understatement! It's empowered him to think about art in a broader way and to see the art-making potential in just about any material.

He's been making skulls from common objects ever since, but he was particularly proud of this one and asked me to send it to you. ”

The happy artist with his work:

C Monster says:

Hey Arlo, What's black and White and skull allover? Your artistic vision! Thanks for sending this in to us. I love how your skull looks like it has little teeth showing. I hope to see more skull art from you this year. Maybe you would like to do a contest entry in the future? Speaking of contest, don't forget our current monthly contest happening now.


**Oreo® is a registered trademark of Nabisco, a subsidiary of Kraft Foods. The Oreo® name 's inclusion on Skull-A-Day.com is strictly for descriptive purposes pertaining to a piece of submitted art, and it should not be further interpreted by any viewer for any other reason.

154. Chocolate Chip Skullies

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies. This delicious recipe can be found in the awesome cookbook La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer:

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies (reprinted with permission, thanks Sarah!)

egg replacer to equal 1 egg
1/2 cup vegan margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1-1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat overn to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a food processor, blend together the egg replacer, margarine, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, coconut, and chocolate chips. Add the margarine mixture and stir together until well incorporated. Roll dough into balls, lay on cookie sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet. Makes 18-24 cookies.

UPDATE: Here's evidence that they were delicious courtesy of my friend Sherry...