I love Harry Potter. I love the magic and friendship and the fantasy and the character arcs, and everything in-between. So, when I got a second chance to make Harry Potter-inspired cookies, this Muggle was pretty excited. Throw in the fact that I was invited to take a Ravenclaw approach (best House ever!), and I was downright giddy.
Everyone knows Ravenclaw House is the best House
My first attempt at making Harry Potter cookies involved my trusty Kopykake and lots of tracing, which worked out just fine. This time, however, I was rocking a super sexy arm brace from my latest bout of tendinitis. In other words, hours spent tracing and hand-lettering wasn't going to happen.
Gryffindor cookies are nice, too
I also knew I wanted to incorporate more than just the Harry Potter logo -- I wanted some quintessential spells and other well-known phrases and landmarks.
Love the Maurader's Map!
I was so excited to find amazing Harry Potter stencils by JustSayItWithCookies. They were an absolute lifesaver. Not only did she expedite the shipping (because I'm terrible at planning ahead), the stencils were nice and thick and worked wonderfully with really stiff royal icing. As you can see, the lettering turned out almost perfectly:
Look at those edges!
I did go back over the royal icing with some metallic air brushing (silver for Ravenclaw, gold for Gryffindor) just to add some dimension and extra sparkle. I also "aged" the Maurader Map and Expecto Patronum cookies with a light spray of chocolate brown around the edges and a coat of pearl prior to applying the royal icing stencil.
Sparkley...
I have to say, these cookies were an absolute blast to make. Sure, it took me all-night and I was a zombie the next day, but I loved being able to test some new techniques. These definitely go down as a favorite.
Harry Potter cookies
Other notes:
- These were made using my FAVORITE SUGAR COOKIE and ROYAL ICING recipes.
- All stencils are from JustSayItWithCookies.
- I get all of my airbrushing supplies from The Cookie Countess. I've tried a number of airbrush brands and swear by Dinkydoodle. It dries almost immediately, which is great for airbrushing beginners like me because I swear it cuts down on overspray.
- Harry Potter colors, especially Gryffindor red, are hard to mix. You have to be really careful to not add too much color, otherwise it'll run. I used a mix of Super Red, Maroon, and Tulip Red AmeriColor gel to get the Gryffindor shade just right and several drops of Egg Yolk for the gold.
- This post is not sponsored by any of the suppliers listed above.