The Perfect Hocus Pocus Party Cookies for Halloween

You know I had to do a set of Hocus Pocus party cookies for Halloween! I’m envisioning a Hocus Pocus party in which all the guests dress up as their favorite character, sip on some fun cocktails (or mocktails!), and graze from a great spread of food, which would include these Hocus Pocus party cookies of course! Plus, you can’t forget to have Hocus Pocus looping in the background. It could probably even be silenced since we’ve all seen it about a thousand times, right? This movie just never gets old! These Hocus Pocus party cookies include: Thackery Binx, the spell book, the Black Flame Candle, a bubbling cauldron, and the witches’ rides! Keep reading for the step-by-step tutorial, full of pictures.

*This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see my full disclosure for further information.*

Part 1: Gathering your Supplies

To create these Hocus Pocus party cookies, you will want to gather:

• 7 Icing bags
• 1 Wilton #1 tip
• 2 Wilton #2 tips
• 5 Wilton #3 tips
• 1 Wilton #16 tip
• 2 Couplers
• Rectangle cookie cutter – I use these rectangle cookie cutters ALL the time: Sweet Sugarbelle Nested Rectangle Cookie Cutter
• Circle cookie cutter – I used the middle sized circle in this set: Wilton 101 Cookie Cutter Set
• Cat cookie cutter – also included in the Wilton 101 set I linked above!
• White (undyed), black, brown, orange, green, yellow, and red buttercream frosting*
• Your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe
• Flat spatula or butter knife
• 7 small bowls to mix up each color of frosting plus forks to stir
• Parchment paper
• Plastic wrap
• Scissors

*Your buttercream frosting should, ideally, be a frosting that “crusts.” I use the Jenny Cookies recipe that you can find on her blog here: Jenny Cookies Buttercream Frosting. I prefer to use the Wilton gel food dye since gel is more vibrant (i.e. more cost effective because you use less) than liquid and doesn’t change the consistency of your frosting. You can get that here: Wilton Gel Coloring 12 Count.

You may be asking, “Where do I purchase all of these Wilton tips?” I recommend going to your local craft or bakery supply store and picking them up individually. If you prefer an online route, you can order them from Amazon, but Wilton.com is always cheaper when I’ve looked. If you don’t want to (or can’t) purchase this amount of each tip, you can also rinse each tip out between icing color changes and attach the tip using a coupler. Just make sure every icing bag has a coupler on it and you will be set to go. Purchasing a set of couplers is pretty affordable on Amazon: 4 Count Wilton Coupler Set. For this set, you will want to purchase 2 of these kits.

Part 2: Baking the Cookies and Setting up Your Icing Bags

1. Roll, cut out, and bake your sugar cookies according to your cookie dough recipe. You can probably make two of each design from these Hocus Pocus party cookies with your cookie dough.
2. While the cookies are baking & cooling, whip up your frosting. You will want to spoon out your frosting into 7 small bowls, one for each color you will be creating. One of the bowls will stay white and you only need about half of the red frosting as the other colors.
3. Set up your tri-color frosting bag. To do this, you will want to lay out a piece of plastic wrap onto your counter top or table. Distribute half of the yellow, all of the red, and half of the orange frostings into vertical lines next to each other. I had these colors in icing bags leftover from another set, thus the “perfect” lines. But really, use a fork and just glob on the lines. It’s actually more realistic that way! You will then pick up each side of the plastic wrap and fold it onto itself and then roll it into a log. Cut off one edge of the plastic wrap right up to the frosting and then insert the bag into an icing bag with a tip #16 in the bag. Now just squeeze the bag of icing down to the tip. If you don’t know how to set up an icing bag, check out this page on my site: Getting Started: Learn How to Decorate Buttercream Cookies. Here is the photo series to follow along:
4. Set up the rest of the icing bags as follows: The rest of your yellow frosting will go into a bag with a tip #2 attached. The rest of your orange frosting and your green frosting will each go into their own bags with a tip #3 attached. Your brown frosting will go into a bag with a coupler, set up with a tip #3 first. Your black frosting will go into a bag with a couple, set up with a #3 first. And, lastly, your white frosting will go into a bag with a coupler, set up with a tip #1 first. If you don’t know how to set up a coupler, check out this page: Getting Started: Learn How to Decorate Buttercream Cookies.

Part 3: Decorating Your Hocus Pocus Party Cookies

I. Thackery Binx:

1. Take your black frosting, set up with a tip #3, and outline the shape of Binx.
2. Using the same icing bag, fill in Binx with vertical lines.
3. Grab your white bag of icing, with tip #1 attached, and draw in the whiskers. That’s it for Binx! He’s super easy.
   

   II. Bubbling Cauldron:

   1. Using the same bag of black frosting with tip #3 attached, outline the shape of your cauldron onto your circle cookies.

2. Place two dots onto the bottom of the cauldron to serve as the cauldron’s feet & then fill in the cauldron using vertical lines again.3.  To create the flames at the bottom of your bubbling cauldron, use your tri colored frosting bag with tip #16 and pipe out lines. You will want to start at the bottom of the cauldron and draw your lines up toward the top of the cauldron.

4. Take your green frosting and draw in the basic shape of the bubbles. You will notice that I periodically add more flames as I create the cookie. I wanted to make sure that the size of the flames were balanced with the rest of the cookie that was forming.

5. Now, use your green frosting to squeeze out little dots over all of the green area, plus some overflowing over the top of the cauldron. If your dots have pointed tops, just take a knife and flatten them out a bit.

6. The last step is to add our small yellow bubbles for some dimension. Your yellow frosting has tip #2 attached, which is perfect to create the smaller dots.

III. Spell Book:

1. The spell book is so fun. It has a lot of steps but obviously this book is necessary for our set. First, take your brown frosting with tip #3 attached, and outline & fill in the shape of 1/3 of your rectangle cookies. If you cut out two sets of each cookie design, you will be doing this for two of your rectangle cookies.
2. Cut a piece of parchment paper that is slightly larger than the size of your cookie and gently lay it over the cookie. Now, using the warmth of your fingers, try to press out any lines on the cookie by pressing onto the parchment paper.
3. Peel off the parchment paper CAREFULLY (think of those temporary tattoos!) and then, using a knife or a flat spatula, begin smoothing the lines even further. You will likely want to repeat the parchment paper/knife steps several times until you are happy with the smoothness.
4. Outline the edges of the rectangle again with your brown frosting.
5. Now, we want to take our black frosting and switch out our tip for a tip #2. Draw a vertical line near the left edge of the book. Then draw in two triangles into the bottom and top right corners of the book. Create a circle for the eye. If you mess up trying to draw a perfect circle, use a pointed knife to manipulate the frosting into the shape you want. If it turns out horrible, just pick up the frosting with your knife to “erase” it and try again.
6. We will now want to switch our brown frosting to a tip #2 as well. Draw in random curved lines and create a baseball stitching effect over them.
7. To create our eye, you will still be using the brown frosting with tip #2 attached. Draw in a smaller circle and then draw a half circle over the top of the circle you just drew for the eyelid. Fill in the half circle.
8. Take your white frosting and switch it out for a tip #3. Fill in the eye with the white frosting.
9. Lastly, take your black frosting, still with tip #2 attached, and squeeze out a small dot for the pupil. I also smoothed out the eyelid with my pointed knife.
   

   IV. Black Flame Candle:

   1. Take your green frosting, with tip #3 in it, and repeat steps 1-3 of the smoothing process used for the spellbook. 2. Using your white frosting, with tip #3 still attached, outline and fill in the shape of the candle.3. Now, use your white frosting to pipe out the candle drips.4. Take your black frosting, still with tip #2 attached, and outline/fill in the shape of your black flame. Don’t forget to draw a small piece of the wick under the flame.5. I chose to smooth out the flame with my pointed knife, just like I did with the eyelid for the spellbook. 6. Lastly, take your yellow frosting, with tip #2 attached, and draw in a small line to give some dimension to the black flame.

   V. The Witches’ Rides:

   1. Use the same steps to smooth your frosting, but this time use your orange frosting with tip #3 attached.2. Take your black frosting, still with tip #2 attached, and draw outlines of two brooms and one vacuum. I am not an artist so outlines seemed like the equivalent of stick figure drawings and I put my confidence into that ability to draw these rides.

   3. Using your orange frosting again, outline the shape of the rectangle.4. Take your black frosting and squeeze out little dots along the border. You will be putting the dots directly over the orange border. The easiest trick to spacing these out evenly is to start with just one line and draw a dot in the center of that line. Then, draw a dot in the center of those two halves you created. Keep repeating that process until you like the spacing.5. Lastly, take your white frosting, still with tip #3 attached, and squeeze out small dots in between all of the black dots. Because this tip is slightly larger than our black #2 tip, try to squeeze out just slightly less frosting. When these tip sizes are so similar in size, there is hardly a difference and it is not going to be noticed by someone who just wants to admire & then eat the cookie!

And now you should have the coolest set of Hocus Pocus party cookies in front of you! Make sure to plate them in a pretty way for your guests. You don’t have to do much, though, these cookies will speak for themselves and draw a lot of attention! I usually hit up the dollar store anytime I want to decorate for a party but Amazon, Party City, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and more are great places to find stuff. Plus, don’t forget the thrift stores!

Here are some fun finds on Amazon for party decorations to compliment your Hocus Pocus party cookies!

 

Make sure to save these cookies for later! Pin one of the images below and then come back to it to comment a photo of the Hocus Pocus party cookies you created! I would love to see them. You can also tag me on Instagram @buttercreamparties! Thank you so much for reading my blog and I hope you are learning lots to grow your confidence in decorating sugar cookies. I believe in you! Have a wonderfully fun Halloween!