A spooky-ooky party calls for some spooky-ooky cookies, and when I saw how much my gingerbread man cookie cutter resembled a doll shape, I decided that a VooDoo cookie would be just right for Halloween.

First, you’ll want to make your favorite shortbread recipe or any other cookie recipe that doesn’t spread too much. If it spreads too much, it won’t keep it’s shape very well. You can find my personal shortbread recipe below.

Roll your cookies out to about 1/8 to 1/4 inch, then recruit some help and cut those cookies out!

Bake them and let them cool completely.

Whip up your favorite Royal Icing recipe and tint them… red or pink, brown, and black. When making my brown frosting, I added a teaspoon of cocoa powder to add a rich chocolate flavor and make the color a little deeper.

Put your icings into decorating bags or a Ziplock with a very small tip cut out. You’ll want a very fine tip for detail work. Start drawing patches, stitches, facial features, and other embellishments onto your cookies.

If you’d like, take some toothpicks and jam them into the cookie the same way you’d stick a needle in a VooDoo doll, to add some extra character.

The best part of these cookies is that, if a limb falls off when removing them from the pan, it just adds extra character to the cookie… add some icing stitches and you’re good to go! You can decorate each cookie differently and add different features and character, too. They have so much personality!

I can’t decide if my favorite is the guy missing the arm or the one with half a head! They’re all too much fun!

These cookies aren’t just for Halloween Parties, either. Take them to your bestie who is going through a nasty breakup, bake them for a friend who just lost their job, or whatever else, and cheer them up. Or, for a little sick humor like the kind my friends would appreciate, if you have a friend having surgery, make a bunch of these cookies with stitches or toothpicks where their ailment is (in the knee for knee surgery, the abdomen for appendectomy… anything!) Oh, and, uh, Valentine’s Day Singles Appreciation Day is the perfect occasion for them, too.

Simple Shortbread Cookies

1 C. Soft Butter
½ C. packed brown sugar
½ C. white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
4-5 C. flour, plus more for flouring cutting surface

Cream together butter and sugars. Add egg, vanilla, baking powder, and cinnamon. Then, add flour, one cup at a time until the dough is no longer sticky. You may need to knead the last bit with your hands if it is too thick. Roll out the cookies into ¼ to ⅛ inch thickness, and use gingerbread man cookie cutters to cut them out. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and place on wax paper or cooling racks immediately.

Wilton Royal Icing

I love this recipe, borrowed from the Wilton website, because it’s positively fool-proof and always turns out perfectly. Please feel free to substitute in your favorite Royal Icing recipe.

3 Tablespoons Wilton Meringue Powder
4 C. Powdered Sugar
5-6 Tablespoons lukewarm water (thinner for spreadable frosting, thicker for piped frosting)

Divide this icing between bowls and, for the voodoo cookies, tint some brown, some black or grey, and some pink or red using Wilton or Americolor gel colors.

Pipe stitches, faces, and patches onto cookies as desired. Make them all look different or all look the same, whatever you desire! If a limb or part of the head or torso fell off following baking, add some stitches along the edge. Perfect!