Spooky Ghost Sugar Cookies
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Yield: 24 cookies | Prep Time: 40 minutes | Bake Time: 12-14 minutes | Total Time: 54 minutes
These cookies are soft, buttery, and just thick enough to hold all the creepy, spooky, sugary decoration your heart desires. They’re crisp at the edges, chewy in the middle, and yes, they taste like the childhood sugar cookie you always wanted but better because now you get to make them yourself.
What Are Spooky Ghost Sugar Cookies?
Imagine this: you roll out dough, cut tiny ghosts, and by the end of the night your kitchen looks like a paranormal bake sale exploded. These cookies are buttery sugar cut-outs, chilled so they don’t melt into shapeless blobs in the oven. They bake up with perfect sharp edges and smooth tops — the kind of blank canvas just begging for royal icing googly eyes, shaky spiderweb doodles, or an entire haunted house scene if you’re that person.
These aren’t the dry, flavorless sugar cookies you avoided at Christmas cookie swaps. Nope. These are tender in the middle, buttery all the way through, and sweet without being cloying. The perfect ghostly bite.
Ingredients You Will Need
All purpose flour
Baking powder
Salt
Unsalted butter softened
Granulated sugar
Egg
Vanilla extract
Egg whites
Confectioners' sugar
Eyeball sprinkles
Our Tips for Spooky Ghost Sugar Cookies
Chill your dough. If you skip this step, your ghosts will turn into sad blobs. Two hours minimum. Overnight if you want to feel smug.
Roll evenly. Quarter-inch thick is the sweet spot. Too thin and they crisp up like crackers. Too thick and they puff into marshmallows.
Let them cool completely before decorating. Otherwise your icing melts into puddle, and instead of white spooky ghosts, you get beige goo monsters. Unless that’s your vibe, which… respect.
Get creative. Royal icing ghosts, buttercream monsters, sprinkle eyeballs — go full chaotic Halloween energy. These cookies are the canvas, you are the mad artist.
How to Store Spooky Ghost Sugar Cookies
Stack ‘em, pack ‘em, or wrap ‘em like tiny ghost presents. At room temp they’ll stay soft and chewy for up to 5 days (covered, of course). If you’re making them ahead, they last up to 10 days in the fridge. Buttercream ghosts don’t travel well so give them 1 day on the counter or up to 5 days chilled. Bonus tip: they freeze beautifully before or after baking, so you can haunt your freezer all year long.
Equipment
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Ghost Cut- Out Sugar Cookies
If you’ve ever wanted to eat a ghost, here’s your chance.
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter, softened (227g)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (343g)
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (320g)
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Prep the dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar: In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar until light and creamy.
- Add egg and vanilla: Mix in the egg and vanilla extract until fully combined.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients: Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing until the dough comes together. If the dough is too soft for rolling, add 1 tablespoon of flour.
- Chill the dough: Divide dough in half, flatten each portion into a disc, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Roll and cut cookies: On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to about ¼ inch thick. Using the Ghost Cookie Cutters, cut into ghost shapes and place on parchment-lined baking sheets.
- Bake: Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 11–12 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden. Cool completely on a wire rack.
- Make the royal icing: In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy. Gradually add the sifted confectioners’ sugar, mixing until stiff peaks form. Add the vanilla extract. Adjust consistency as needed. Optional: keep some icing thinner for flooding the cookies, and thicken a portion with extra sugar to pipe the edges.
- Decorate: Using a piping bag, pipe the thickened icing along the edges of the cookies first. Once set slightly, flood the centers with the thinner icing. Add Eyeball Sprinkles before the icing sets.
- Set and store: Allow the icing to harden completely before storing. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Cooling is key: Make sure cookies are completely cool before applying any icing: warm cookies will cause the icing to melt and lose shape.
- Thicken icing for edges: To make a stiffer icing for outlining, gradually add 1–2 tablespoons of extra sifted confectioners’ sugar at a time until it holds its shape in the piping bag.
- Flooding the centers: Keep a portion of the icing thinner for icing or "flooding" the cookie centers. If your icing is too thick, you can loosen it by adding a few drops of water to reach a pourable consistency
- Using a piping bag: No need for a fancy icing tip, just trim the bottom of your piping bag and begin! Fill with thickened icing and pipe carefully along the edges of each cookie. Let it set slightly before flooding the center with the thinner icing.
- Adding color: Use gel or paste food coloring for vibrant, smooth results. Add a small amount at a time and knead into the icing until evenly distributed. Avoid liquid food coloring as it can thin the icing too much.
- Decorating tips: Add sprinkles, edible glitter, or candy eyes while the flooding icing is still wet so they stick. You can layer colors by letting one layer set for 5–10 minutes before adding another.
- 1 Corinthians 16:14: “Let all that you do be done in love.”
