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Shark Cookies with Royal Icing

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Shark cookies with royal icing are surprisingly simple with your favorite sugar cookie recipe or store bought dough! Create life preservers and a fun open mouth shark with plenty of teeth. Follow these step-by-step instructions to make decorated sugar cookies for a shark birthday or shark week.

Shark Cookies!! Throwing a Shark birthday party? Make your own shark cookies with these step-by-step instructions using purchased refrigerated cookie dough or your favorite sugar cookie recipe. These shark mouth cookies are sure to take a bite out of your kids birthday celebration! Pair them with life preserver cookies and you've got a colorful combination for your dessert table.

Planning a shark birthday party? Looking for the perfect shark week decorated cookies? This post is for you!  Have fun decorating these shark cookies with royal icing using these step-by-step instructions from Heather Painchauld. If you think these cookies are complicated, think again! These cookies are at a beginner level so don’t be intimidated by decorating them yourself.

Shark Cookies are made easy with refrigerated sugar cookie dough! Have fun decorating these shark cookies with royal icing using these step-by-step instructions. Makes a great dessert for  shark week or a shark themed birthday party!

Ingredients for Shark Cookies

To make these shark cookies you need the following ingredients:

  • refrigerated sugar cookie dough*
  • flour*
  • powdered sugar
  • meringue powder
  • gel food coloring

For this post refrigerated sugar cookie dough from the grocery store was used to keep these shark shaped cookies as simple as possible.  You can easily swap that out with your favorite sugar cookie recipe and skip the additional flour. You will also need the repurposed shark cookie cutters used in this post, the Breakfast Mini Shape Shifter Set from Michael’s. It uses the half circle (a wedge/bowl design) to create the shark mouth and the donut shape for the life preserver. You can also find these exact mini cutters from this larger set found on both Amazon and Sugar Dot Cookies. These are both great starter sets with many different uses for each cookie cutter.

How to Make Royal Icing

To make the royal icing, you’ll want to combine the sugar and meringue powder in a stand mixer. Add 8 tablespoons of water, using the whisk attachment, beat for 1 minute on low. Continue to add water one tablespoon at a time until the icing slowly drizzles from the whisk when lifted.

Red White Gray and Black Royal Icing in Squeeze Bottles

Once your icing is prepared, if you find the icing is too hard, add more water one drop at a time. If the icing is too runny, add more icing sugar one teaspoon at a time. Altering in small amounts will allow you to find the perfect consistency without over correcting. Separate the icing into small mixing bowls and add desired food coloring. Mix well. Scoop the icing into piping bags or icing bottles as shown.

How to Make Shark Cookies

These cookies start with a refrigerated cookie dough. Combine dough and a 1/4 cup of flour. Roll to ¼” thickness. Cut out cookie shapes using a wedge and donut cookie mini cutter. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 8 minutes or until the edges start to brown.

Using a donut cookie cutter to make life preserver sugar cookies

Once your sugar cookies have cooled, it is time to ice them with your royal icing.

Adding black icing to shark cookies

Line around the edge of the wedge cookie design with icing and fill the middle.Start with black royal icing in a half circle following the same pattern shape as the cookie, approximately 2/3 of the way full. Use a toothpick to poke bubbles or direct icing into holes. Allow to dry and add gray icing to fill the rest of the cookie on the top.Allow each design area to dry before moving on.

Adding gray icing to shark sugar cookies for shark themed birthday party

When the flooded are dries, add a red line between the grey and black icing as shown.

Adding red royal icing to shark sugar cookies

The icing should completely dry, at room temperature for at least four hours, before adding piping details to the top. Pipe approximately 10 to 12 white teeth onto the black icing.

Adding teeth to shark mouth for shark birthday cookies

 Add black nostrils with a black edible marker. You can find inexpensive edible markers at your local craft store or Amazon.

Using a edible food pen for shark cookies

How to Make Life Preserver Cookies

Life preserver cookies work great for a beach, nautical or shark themed birthday party and are super simple to make with these easy steps.

Adding white royal icing to sugar cookies

Using the donut shaped cookies, line around the edge of your ring, making three sections and a space in between about half the size of your white sections. Flood the middle with white royal icing.Use a toothpick to poke bubbles or direct icing into holes. Allow to dry.

Making Life Preserver Cookies with royal icing and sugar cookie dough

Repeat the same process using the red icing on the three section between the white to create what resembles a lifesaver.

Life preserver cookies work great for a beach or shark themed birthday party! These easy sugar cookies use either your favorite sugar cookie recipe or purchased refrigerated cookie dough and are decorated using royal icing. You will be surprised how easy it is to make your own shark birthday or shark week decorated cookies!

That is all there is to creating these fun nautical themed cookies! They are sure to brighten up any dessert table and be the hit of the party.

Shark sugar cookies with royal icing are surprisingly simple with your favorite sugar cookie recipe or store bought dough! Follow these step-by-step instructions to make fun sugar cookies for a shark birthday or shark week.

Shark Cookies!! Throwing a Shark birthday party? Make your own shark cookies with these step-by-step instructions using purchased refrigerated cookie dough or your favorite sugar cookie recipe. These shark mouth cookies are sure to take a bite out of your kids birthday celebration! Pair them with life preserver cookies and you've got a colorful combination for your dessert table.
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Shark Cookies

Shark Sugar Cookies are made easy with refrigerated sugar cookie dough! Have fun decorating these shark cookies with royal icing using these step-by-step instructions. Makes a great dessert for shark week or a shark themed birthday party!

Course Dessert
Keyword decorated, kids birthday, kids party, life preserver, party ideas, royal icing, shark birthday party, shark dessert, shark party, shark themed, shark week, sugar cookies, summer, summer dessert
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 16 minutes
Servings 16

Ingredients

  • 1 tube (16.5 oz) Pillsbury Ready To Bake Refrigerated Sugar Cookie Dough*
  • ¼ cup all purpose flour

Royal Icing Ingredients

  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 3 tablespoons meringue powder
  • 8-12 tablespoons room temperature water
  • Gel food coloring red, black
  • black edible food pen

Instructions

  1. Combine dough and flour. Roll to ¼” thickness. Cut out cookie shapes using a wedge shaped cookie cutter. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Cool 2 minutes then remove from cookie sheet.

  2. In a stand mixer combine sugar and meringue powder. Add 8 tablespoons of water, using the whisk attachment, beat for 1 minute on low. Continue to add water one tablespoon at a time until the icing slowly drizzles from the whisk when lifted.
  3. Once prepared if the icing is too hard, add more water one drop at a time. If icing is too runny, add more icing sugar one teaspoon at a time.
  4. Separate the icing into four small mixing bowls, leaving one white and adding red to one, and black to the other two bowls. (One should be black and one should be gray). Mix well. Scoop the icing into piping bags or icing bottles.

Decorating Shark Cookies:

  1. Line around the edge of the wedge cookie design with icing and fill the middle. Start with black royal icing in a half circle following the same pattern shape as the cookie, approximately 2/3 of the way full. Use a toothpick to poke bubbles or direct icing into holes. Allow to dry and add gray icing to fill the rest of the cookie on the top.

  2. When the flooded area dries, add a red line between the grey and black icing. Allow each design area to dry before moving on. The icing should completely dry, at room temperature for at least four hours, before adding piping details to the top.

  3. Pipe white teeth onto the black icing. Add black nostrils with a black edible marker.

Decorating Life Preserver Cookies

  1. Using donut shaped cookies, line around the edge of your ring, making three sections and a space in between about half the size of your white sections. Flood the middle with white royal icing.Use a toothpick to poke bubbles or direct icing into holes. Allow to dry.

  2. Repeat the same process using the red icing on the three section between the white to create what resembles a lifesaver.

Recipe Notes

This recipe using 2 inch mini cookie cutters. One is a donut shape and the other is a wedge/bowl shape.

*Can substitute your favorite sugar cookie recipe for the refrigerated cookie dough.

Shark Week Cookies never looked better than these fun shark teeth and life preserver cookies! Make your own shark week decorated cookies with these step-by-step instructions using royal icing.

These cookies also pair well with easy beach cupcakes that we have featured in the past.

Wow guests and save time with these beach birthday cupcakes decorated with water, sand and colorful umbrellas! These easy cupcakes are perfect for your next birthday party or summer celebration like a pool party, cookout or picnic. #cupcakes #beach #kidparties #birthdayparties #summer #dessert

Hosting a Shark and Mermaid Birthday Party?

If you are hosting a mermaid and shark party, check out the many fun mermaid birthday party ideas at Finding Zest. So many fun options to pair with these shark themed cookies!

Mermaid Jello Cups for a Mermaid Birthday Party

Mermaid Jello Cups | Finding Zest

 

I hope you love these easy sugar cookies using either your favorite sugar cookie recipe or purchased refrigerated cookie dough and decorated using royal icing. Perfect for a shark birthday party or shark week decorated cookies!

Shark cookies with royal icing are surprisingly simple with your favorite sugar cookie recipe or store bought dough! Follow these step-by-step instructions to make fun sugar cookies for a shark birthday or shark week.
Shark Cookies are made easy with refrigerated sugar cookie dough! Have fun decorating these shark cookies with royal icing using these step-by-step instructions. Makes a great dessert for  shark week or a shark themed birthday party!
Shark Sugar Cookies are made easy with refrigerated sugar cookie dough! Have fun decorating these shark cookies with royal icing using these step-by-step instructions. Makes a great dessert for  shark week or a shark themed birthday party!
Life preserver cookies work great for a beach or shark themed birthday party! These easy sugar cookies use either your favorite sugar cookie recipe or purchased refrigerated cookie dough and are decorated using royal icing. You will be surprised how easy it is to make your own shark birthday or shark week decorated cookies!
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1 Comment

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Comments

  1. Jean says

    April 29, 2022 at 1:03 pm

    5 stars
    Easy. Thank you for the adorable shark cookies!

    Reply

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