I adore T-Rex – for reasons that make for too long of a story to tell here. But for Solstice this year, one of my sons bought me a T-Rex cookie cutter. I waited, patiently, for the holidays to be over so we would have room for snacks – and today I made a trial batch of cut-out, flood-iced cookies.

SO CUTE.
I’ll be honest – this is the one that turned out the best. It was a learning process to get the eye placed properly and the outline and flooding done reasonably. But I am ridiculously pleased with how they turned out – and sad that I didn’t make more of them (this recipe made 9 cookies).
Here’s the cookie recipe that I used:
1 Dozen Cut-Out Cookies
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon almond extract (I used vanilla again)
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Scrape down the sides frequently.
- Once everything is light and fluffy, add the egg yolk and extracts. Mix well.
- Sprinkle half the flour mixture into the bowl and continue to mix on a low speed until combined. Add the remainder of the flour mixture.
- Mix until no visible flour remains (don’t over-mix!)
- Dump the dough onto a floured surface. Squish the dough into a ball. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough until it’s large enough to make approximately 8 medium-sized cut-outs.
- Place the shapes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Gather the dough scraps, re-roll, and cut out the rest of the shapes. Put them on the cookie sheet too!
- Place the cookie sheet in the freezer and start heating your oven to 350F.
- When the oven reaches temperature, remove the cookies from the freezer and put them into the oven.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies just start to turn brown.
- Let the cookies rest on the pan for a few minutes and then move them a wire rack to cool completely.
- Don’t frost the cookies until they’re fully cooled.
I used this method for doing the outline and flooding. It worked well, but I had to add quite a bit more powdered sugar to my recipe (possibly because I make my own sugar in the blender so it doesn’t contain corn starch?)
For my own records, this is what the recipe looked like for me in the end:
Icing for Border & Flooding
For the border icing:
1.5 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or other flavoring extract
2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons milk or water
Food coloring, optional
For the flood icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or other flavoring extract
2 1/2 tablespoons milk or water
Food coloring, optional
Directions:
- Mix the ingredients together for the border icing. It should be quite thick. Spoon it into a squeeze bottle and then make the outlines. Allow the icing to dry to the touch (about 10 minutes, at most).
- Mix the flood icing. it should be thick but not too much. Spoon it into a squeeze bottle and then use it like a magic marker to colour inside the border icing. FUN. Allow to dry overnight.