How to Make Skull Candle Cookies

Now that Back to School is off and running, I wasted no time brainstorming for the next holiday. I just love Halloween, not because I enjoy dressing up in costumes and eating a regrettable amount of candy corn. I love Halloween because it's the start of all the fun, fall festivities. Because of this reason, I'm excited to show you of all the new fall cookie designs I've been brewing over. First up, these skull candle cookies.

If you've been following this blog for a few years, you might remember I made skull candle cookies before. Back then, I used a cupcake with a candle cookie cutter as a base for those cookies. The candle section at the top was so delicate, I don't know if any survived long after the photos were taken. Now that I make my own cookie cutters, I wanted to revisit the idea and see if I could make a more sturdy design.

Skull Candle Cookie Cutter

I added five new cookie cutter designs to the shop, one of them being this skull candle cookie cutter. The design incorporates a wider and stubbier candle and flame in hopes there would be less chance of breakage. I also redesigned the skull for simplicity. I'll show how I decorated these skull candle cookies in the steps below.

Template for the Skull Candle Cookies

I provided a downloadable template for the design ideas shown in this tutorial. In the template file, I've included designs for the skull candle, as well as the witch, the broom, and the stack of spell books.

You can download the skull candle and the other Halloween cookie templates HERE.

If you have a Kopykake or Pico projector, just print it out (or pull it up on your mobile device) and you are good to go. For those without a projector, follow the suggested steps below by cutting out the template and tracing the design onto the cookie with an edible food marker.

The Decorating Process

Decorating these skull candle cookies involve the same process as the ones I made previously. Feel free to change up the colors to your liking.

Step 1

With black flood icing and a food-only paintbrush, paint the inner area of the skull, as shown below. Let the icing dry.

Step 2

With white piping icing, outline eye holes, a nose, and around the skull's head. Then, fill the inner area with white flood icing. Leave this to dry for 1 to 2 hours.

Step 3

After the skull icing had time to set, it’s time to add the candle wax detail. I used electric green medium icing to pipe out the first layer of a random drip design. Leave this icing to dry for 30 minutes.

Step 4

After the candle's first layer is set and crusted over, add more random drips with the same icing.

Step 5

The final steps are to add the finishing details. Add a flame at the top by first piping yellow medium icing in the middle, then immediately filling the outer edge with orange medium icing.

Add a tiny wick with black piping icing. Then outline around the skull and over the brows with white piping icing.

Video Tutorial

The steps above are demonstrated in the time-lapsed video below.

As mentioned before, I added additional cookie cutter designs to accompany this skull candle cookie.

I went with a mystic witch theme for this set of cookies. There's a youthful witch's head, and her whimsy broom. I also repurposed the apple with stack of books cookie cutter by coverting it to a skull upon a few spell books.

Stay tuned for more Halloween cookie ideas to come. Hint: if you follow me on Instagram, I've been giving early sneak-peeks of a few designs I have in store.