How to Make Teacup Cookies – Downton Abbey Cookies
Who loves Downton Abbey? I do! I do! A wonderful neighbor asked me to make special teacup cookies for her daughter’s Downton Abbey premier party. What a fun idea! At first we had no idea how to make a Downton Abbey themed cookie, then finally decided a teacup would be the most appropriate design. She placed a decorated teacup sugar cookie on each guests place to go along with all the different china they would be using. She wanted unique designs for all the cookies. Hopefully Lady Mary is okay with these designs. Next time I will add gold embellishments. For now we are featuring the servant’s teacup cookie design. 😉
These cookies were very simple! I would make teacup cookies again for special little girl’s tea party, mothers day, or even for a gift for a teacher. Follow these simple instructions to make teacup cookies for your next Downton Abbey party.
Teacup cookies – checklist
- Cookie dough
- white icing for outlining and flooding cookies
- purple, pink and green icing for floral details
Step 1 – How to Make Teacup Cookies – Prepare dough & bake cookies
Use whatever sugar cookie recipe you prefer. Make sure the dough is not too sticky so that it maintains the teacup shape. Here is a link to my favorite sugar cookie recipe. Once the teacup cookies are baked you are ready to go and the fun begins!
Step 2 – How to Make Teacup Cookies – Make Royal Icing
You can use either royal icing or royal glaze icing for these cookies. The technique for making royal glaze icing is the same as for making royal icing.
For these cookies I used a one consistency icing. I thinned the icing to a thick molasses consistency to be used for outlining and filling in the cookies. I also dyed a small amount of icing with purple, leaf green and pink to make the flowers. All icing used for these teacup cookies is the same medium consistency.
Step 3 – How to Make Teacup Cookies – Decorate cookies
Decorate the cookies following the photos above. To begin, cover the base of the cookie with white icing (1). Immediately add the purple lines and five small dots of purple to decorate and make flowers on the teacup cookies (2). Before the icing has a chance to set use a toothpick to pull the small dots into a petal shape. Do this for each of the five petals to form a flower (3). Clean the toothpick in between forming the petals so that the petals do not turn white. You must work quickly so that the icing does not set up. Immediately add two small green dots around the flowers to make leaves. At least 30 minutes later add the swirl pattern for the handle of the teacup cookie.
With this type of wet-on-wet decorating technique you can only work on the base of one cookie at a time.
Here are more of the teacup cookies I made. The surface of the final pink cookie was ruined when someone bumped it before it dried. Oh well! It’s just a cookie, right? If I make another set of teacup cookies I will try using more gold and silver designs to make the cookies more fancy for Lady Mary – Downton Abbey cookie style!
Here are some other teacup cookies I made with this set. They again have are using a wet-on-wet icing decorating technique. The flowers on these teacup cookies were a big BIG! I would not use these as a downton abbey cookie, but save them for a little girls tea party and use fun bright colors.
Here is yet another teacup cookie design I came up with. I loved the pale pink with the bright pink accent on this teacup cookie. Again, details are piped onto wet icing to give a teacup cookie this look. Okay that pink cookie is making me want to plan a princess tea party – like right now! You can never go wrong when using different shades of the same tones of pink. Do you want to see more?
Here are more of the teacup cookie designs. I rarely make the same cookies twice – but – just in case I need to keep track of my other cookie ‘sketches.’
I hope these teacup cookie designs help you when making a treat for your upcoming Downton Abbey Cookie celebration – tea party or whatever special occasion.
Enjoy!
Im super nervous. Tea Party for my daughter is Saturday. I want to give these a try. What tool were you using to design the teacup?
Traci – I tried to put everything I used at the bottom of the post. Buy a simple teacup cookie cutter to form the shapes. For the icing you will need meringue powder, powdered sugar, and flavoring. For decorating I like to use the disposable decorating bags – also at the end of the link. To make the petal shapes a toothpick or reusable turkey lacers are great.
Make lots of extra cookies so you can really play around with decorating the cookies. If the icing keeps running off the cookie it may be too thick. Simply add more powdered sugar. If the icing won’t flatten on it’s own it may be too thick and need a bit more water.
You can do it!
Suzanne 🙂
What are you using to spread the royal icing?
Traci – I updated the post. In the photo I am using a really inexpensive turkey lacer from the dollar store. I like them because I can reuse them. I have also used toothpicks. They do a great job dragging the icing to make the petal design. Thanks for asking! 🙂
Suzanne