These seashell cookies are perfect for all of your summer get-togethers! They are simple, yet elegant. Everything about them is just beautiful. The mix of subtle color and pearlescent sheen gives the cookie a realistic feel. Follow along with me as I show you step by step how to make these sweet little beachy cookies.
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How To Make Seashell Cookies
Before I take you through the detailed steps of creating this beautiful cookie, please take a moment to check out my video of the process. Enjoy!
Bake Your Cookies
Before we start talking about how these cookies are decorated, you will want to bake your cookies and let them set overnight. By this, I mean leave your baked cookies in an airtight container or bag until the next day. You can find my recipe for sugar cookies that hold their shape, here. If you do not already own a seashell cutter, this set is adorable. (It also comes with a starfish cutter that would be perfect for my starfish cookies!)
Royal Icing Ready
Once you are ready to start decorating your cookies, you can prepare your royal icing. The recipe I use can be found here. I give credit to this recipe for the cookies looking the way they do. Feel free to try the following techniques with your own favorite recipe, just keep in mind, I cannot ensure the same result. Now on to the fun part…
Piping Time!
The first step in making your seashell is to outline your shell (minus the little feet on the bottom) with royal icing thinned to a consistency between piping and flooding. I like to refer to this as a medium consistency. You can make you icing any color you’d like, but for these cookies, I went with a light ivory tone. You can use ivory coloring to achieve this or you can just use a very small amount of brown.
Next, you will fill in the outlined area immediately after outlining it. You are going to use the same icing to fill that you used to outline. Make sure to smooth it out. You can use a cookie scribe to do this. Here are some scribes similar to the ones I use.
When you have your cookie flooded, set it aside for about 15 minutes. For this next part, I highly recommend you make a spare “test cookie” to determine when you are ready to move on.
Take a square edged toothpick and using two hands, hold it between your two pointer fingers. Lightly press it into your test cookie. If it leaves an impression that looks like mine, you are ready to make the indentations onto your shells. If it still seems too wet, hold off and test again every few minutes until it looks right.
You will most likely have a crackled effect to your indents. If you look closely at the picture of the completed cookies at the top of this article, you will see what I mean. I actually prefer this. I think it gives the shell more of a realistic look!
Once all of your shells have been indented with their lines, you can use the same icing you’ve been using and fill in the little feet at the bottom of the shell.
Again, your cookie scribe is a great tool to shape and fill this part.
The icing part is over! Now, let your cookie dry for a few hours.
Ready For Some Airbrushing
When your cookie has dried to the touch you can move on to the airbrushing. Now, if you don’t have an airbrush, you can achieve a similar look by using a wet on wet technique (just pipe curves in another color over the wet ivory icing), edible paint, petal or luster dust, or leave this step out entirely. Have to say, though, if you don’t have an airbrush… really think about getting one! I LOVE mine so much! Here is what I use.
I used Amerimist’s coral color on my shells. You can find it here. Go ahead and get creative with your own color choices here if you wish to do so, though!
Pressing lightly on the trigger I made two lines of the coral color that followed the curve of the shell.
I set the cookies aside to let the coral coloring dry. This only takes a few minutes. I then got out my Amerimist pearl sheen. I love this stuff! It adds such beautiful touches wherever it’s used. You can find it here. Be careful not to go too crazy with it as that will result in splatters. Just spray once over from every angle. If you still aren’t satisfied with the level of sheen you can go over it again once the first layer dries.
Let your cookie dry again… and you’re done! Woohoo!
Beautiful seashell cookies that are perfect on their own, or accompanying other beachy themed cookies. I used them as part of a group of beach cookies, but how pretty would they be as wedding or party favors?
If you have any questions feel free to ask away!
Good luck and happy decorating! xoxo, Katie
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