Desserts for Dudes : Let's Taco 'Bout Cookies

It started with hot dog cookies. Then, there were fried chicken cookies. Next...cookie fries and cheeseburger cookies. Now, I bring you taco cookies. Something about combining junk food and cookies makes me really happy. My boys seem to love them, too.


In honor of Father's Day month, it's time for more Desserts for Dudes. Yes, it's true that this is a generalization. Yes, dudettes can enjoy these desserts as well. I had to laugh last week when some tweeters on twitter were getting their knickers in a knot over the term "Desserts for Dudes."
Let not take our desserts so seriously (or literally).


Whether you make them plain tacos...


....or girl them up to make Taco Belles...


...these really are simple to make, and so much fun.

When my boys suggest going to Taco Bell, I normally roll my eyes, but the truth is that a Taco Bell bean burrito with two packets of Hot (not Mild, not Fire) sauce is one of my favorite things. I know, I know. Add it to my list of offenses with liking Cool Whip and canned frosting. ;)


I love the mix of colors and textures for the filling.


To make Taco (Belle) Cookies, you'll need:

• circle cut-out cookies
• bench scraper or knife
• royal icing, tinted with AmeriColor (or Hobby Lobby) coloring: ivory mixed with gold (shell), warm brown with a bit of super black (meat), super red (tomatoes/lips), bright white (sour cream), electric orange (cheese), electric green mixed with leaf green (lettuce), and super black (eyes)...or similar shades
• disposable icing bags
• squeeze bottles
• couplers and tips: #1, small leaf
• toothpicks

First, make the cookies. Use a circle cookie cutter, then slice in half using a bench scraper or knife. 

Once cooled, thin the taco shell colored icing with water (reserving a bit of unthinned icing for later). Add water a bit at a time, stirring gently. Thin until a knife drown through the middle of the icing disappears in a count of 12-15 seconds.

Cover with a damp dish towel and let sit for a few minutes. Stir gently with a silicone spatula and pour slowly into a squeeze bottle.


Outline and fill the cookies with the same consistency icing. Use a toothpick to nudge icing into spaces and pop any large air bubbles.

Let the icing set for about an hour.


Use the reserved shell icing to pipe a curved line across the cookies, making an opening for the fillings.

Thin the icings for the meat, tomatoes, and sour cream using the same method. Reserve some of the red icing for later before thinning.


Use squeeze bottles to add the fillings to the tacos. Start with the meat, then add the sour cream and tomatoes.

Place the orange icing in a bag fitted with a #1 tip. Pipe on the cheese.

Using a leaf tip, add a squiggle of lettuce, holding the tip flat. (Practice first on a paper towel or plate.)


Use the thinned taco shell colored icing to fill in the front of the taco, adding a little dimension.

Let the icing dry for about an hour.


To make the Taco Belles: using #1 tips, add eyes and eyelashes in black icing. Add the lips in red.

Let the cookies dry uncovered for 6-8 hours or overnight.


What should our Dessert for Dudes fast food cookies be next year??? I'm already planning.

Ice Cream Pop Cookies

Ever since Jack started high school, I stopped with the end-of-year gifts for individual teachers. Gosh, typing that just made me feel like a terrible person. Hear me out...


What I've started doing instead is making a big tray of goodies for the entire faculty and staff to have during finals week.
Listen, I'm sure those teachers can use a sugar buzz to make it through until summer just as much as the kids. Maybe more so. 


[note: BIG NOTE...Jack goes to a small school. If my mom had made year-end treats for the faculty/staff at the high school I went to, she would have needed to start baking in September.]

I've done trays of brownies and cookies. I've sent up big batches of the New York Times chocolate chip cookies. This year, I wanted something that screamed, "SUMMER!" Maybe because it won't. stop. raining. around here and I needed a little visual sunshine.


I made these ice cream pop cookies. I have this little board on Pinerest called "this would make a totally cute cookie." It's where I save things that would, well, make a totally cute cookie. You can see the inspiration for these there.


Originally, I started doing surgery on a rectangle-shaped cookie to get this shape. Then I realized that I had exactly the shape I was cutting out...my tombstone cookie! Who knew tombstones could be so cute?!?


To make ice cream pop cookies, you'll need:

• tombstone-shaped cut-out cookies
• wooden popsicle sticks (food grade)
• royal icing, tinted with AmeriColor (or Hobby Lobby) coloring: peach, electric pink, bright white, and chocolate brown with a bit of super black
• disposable icing bags
• squeeze bottles
• toothpicks
• multicolored nonpareils

When rolling out the cookie dough, roll to about 3/8" thick. Space on cookie sheet so that a popsicle stick will fit between cookies. 

Bake according to recipe. Immediately upon removing from oven, insert popsicle stick into each cookie. Let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet, then remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the icing, divide and tint. Thin the peach, pink and white icings with water, a bit at a time, stirring gently. Thin until a knife drown through the middle of the icing disappears in a count of 12-15 seconds.

Cover the thinned icings with a damp dish towel until ready to use. Pour the icings into squeeze bottles.


Outline and fill each section of the ice cream pop, starting with the top and bottoms sections. Use a toothpick to nudge icing into spaces and pop any large air bubbles.


Let these dry at least one hour before filling the center.


For the "fudge"-covered pops, let the base color dry for an hour or more. (I let these sit in the dehydrator for about 2 hours.) Thin the brown icing in the same manner and apply over the base coat. Use a toothpick to nudge icing into spaces and pop any large air bubbles. Sprinkle nonpareils on top.

Let the cookies dry completely, uncovered, for 6-8 hours or overnight.

How to make royal icing toothpick roses...

As promised in my last post, here's some more detailed info on making those cute little toothpick roses. They are such a sweet accent on cookies (or cakes! or cupcakes!).


A little background...before going to CookieCon last month, I'd never heard of a "toothpick rose." Then, I met this sweet cookie girl named Andrea, of Andy Kay's Cookies (go check out her cookies!) Andrea is so vivacious, and friendly, and gracious...and a fellow curlytop! Andrea just so happens to be THE Andrea, Lady Andrea of the Toothpick Rose. (It's kinda like being Duchess of Cambridge.)


Have you ever seen anyone make a frosting flower for a cake using a "flower nail?" This is similar. You can make all of the roses you want ahead of time and place them exactly where you want them, as opposed to piping them directly onto the cookie.


Andrea was kind enough to show me her toothpick rose technique at CookieCon...and let me try it. I failed miserably. Once I got home, though, I couldn't wait to try again. (Keep reading; there is a link to Andrea's tutorial video farther down. You don't want to miss it.)


Andrea makes her roses using a Wilton 101s tip. I have a million tips and, of course, did not check to see if I had a 101s until I was ready to start making them. Did I have one? No. I had a small petal tip, an Ateco 264. It did the job, but I definitely need to get my hands on a 101s.

To make the toothpick roses, you'll need:

• thick royal icing (I used my regular recipe and then added more powdered sugar until it was super thick and at a stiff peak...if you have a glob of icing on your spatula, you should have to forcefully bang it on the side of the bowl to get it to fall off.)
• piping bag
• 101s or Ateco 264 tip (small petal tip)
• toothpick
• small parchment squares
• paper towels

(I'll walk you through the steps, then link to Andrea's awesome video, so you can see the technique in action.)

Hold the icing tip so that the small end is pointing up. 

Start at the top of the toothpick and pipe a loop going above the toothpick and back down. From here, backtrack to before where the last loop ended, and pipe an arch while rotating the toothpick. Repeat until you have several layers. 

The more you have your tip angled out from the top, the more open your rose will be. 

When you're finished, poke the bottom of the toothpick through the parchment and slide the parchment up. Gently push the rose off of the toothpick using the parchment. Place on a cookie sheet to dry. 

Have a paper towel handy to wipe the tip off...and for mess-ups. 

Once your roses are dry, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. Use royal icing to secure onto cookies. 

Now that you've read that through, take a look at Andrea's toothpick rose video. 
It will all make sense to see it in action. Promise! 

*this post contains some affiliate links. 

Toothpick roses. Are you as in love with them as I am? 

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Fall Floral Cookies and a Few Firsts...

Please excuse the plethora of pictures. You know me. I can't stop.

This fall floral set was for a special event at Jack's school. My friend Kristen from the blog We are THAT Family came to speak at a mother-daughter night. Kristen is such an inspiration. To hear Kristen speak, to read her story, makes you want to go out and change the world. She's the founder of Mercy House Kenya and Fair Trade Friday (be sure to click over and check them out).

In fact, watch the video about Fair Trade Friday. I bet you can't make it through dry-eyed. I've seen it 10 times and I still blubber my way through it.

I wanted the cookies for her night to be special.



Of course, it took me forever to decide what cookies to make. I finally started with the color scheme and then went from there.



I used two new techniques for this set and I'll be telling you more about them later this week...otherwise, this post would be so long, you'd be reading it into next week.

The new techniques I used for these were toothpick roses...


...and airbrushing!!!


Oh my gosh. I'm obsessed with both.


For this post, let me fill you in on the colors I used...

This pin was my color palette inspiration.

Blue: Regal Purple + Teal
Red: Super Red + Maroon
Yellow: Egg yellow + Gold
Orange: Copper
Green: Forest Green + Avocado
Airbrush: Copper Sheen airbrush color
(All colors Americolor food coloring)


I used my go-to cut-out cookie recipe and my never-fail royal icing.


OK...stay tuned for more detail on toothpick roses and airbrushing!

*this post contains affiliate links. thank you!

Cupcake Cuties

First, my most recent post on PW Food &Friends is up. Flour 101. It's all about flour: wheat flour. What, how, where, and when the heck to use them. Substitutions included. Go check it out if you have a minute or seven. ;)


Cupcake cookies. These babies are so cute on their own and can be worked into almost any cookie theme set. Just switch out the colors, voila!



This is a cookie cutter I picked up at Crate & Barrel years ago, but there are lots, and lots, and lots of cupcake cookie cutters on the market. You probably already have one in your cookie cutter stash.

The dangerous thing about these cookies? I now want a cookie AND a cupcake.


For the cupcake cookies, you will need:

• cupcake sugar cookies
• royal icing, tinted with AmeriColor Chocolate Brown and Soft Pink
• disposable icing bag
• coupler and tips (#3 & #1)
• squeeze bottles
• toothpicks
• chocolate jimmies
• red sixlets (or a bit of red icing)

Using a #3 tip, outline the cookie in brown. (I like a larger tip here so the outline stands out.)  Reserve some of this piping consistency for later.

 Thin the brown and pink icings with water, a little at a time, until it is the consistency of thick syrup. A ribbon of icing dropped back into the bowl should disappear in a count of one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two. Cover with a damp dishtowel and let sit several minutes.

Stir gently with a rubber spatula to pop any large air bubbles that have formed. Transfer to squeeze bottles.

Fill in the bottoms of the cupcakes in brown.  Use a toothpick to guide to edges or pop and large air bubbles.


Flood the tops of the cupcakes with the pink icing, working about 6 at a time.


Leave the bottoms solid, or come back over the wet icing with a squiggle of pink icing going across. After flooding, sprinkle chocolate jimmies on the tops....don't worry, the icing won't dry before you get back to it. Add a bit of piping consistency royal icing to the top of the cookie to attach the sixlet.  (If you don't have sixlets, just add a dot of red icing.)

Switch the tip on the brown icing to a #1 or #2 and pipe lines on the "wrappers" that don't have the pink squiggle. Let dry 6-8 hours, or overnight.


That's it!  Easy as pie cupcake!

*portions of the post were originally posted 9-23-2011*
*affiliate links included*