Hot Diggety Dog, it's Beer-thirty!

Dudes need cookies, too! And why not beer and hot dog cookies? I think these are perfect for summer and a really fun treat for Father's Day!

I've played around with black outlining before and really love the way it looks. The cookies just look so crisp, or whimsical, or something! Anyway, I like it.

A hint for using black icing, use AmeriColor Super Black food coloring. You don't need a lot and it doesn't have the "off-taste" that some other colors have.

Last week, I had the pleasure to meet Jennifer, the cookie maker at Frost Bake Shoppe. Her cookies are absolutely darling and she uses black outlining quite a bit (here's her Flickr stream). Her hint, let the black outline dry for 3 hours before filling to ensure no bleeding into the flood icing.

To decorate the beer cookies:

• With black royal icing, use a #3 tip to pipe the outline of the mug, handle and foam (AmeriColor Super Black). {I used a #3 because really wanted the outline to stand out here.}
• Let dry at least 1 hour.
• Thin white and gold royal icing with water to the consistency of thick syrup (AmeriColor Bright White and Gold). Reserve some un-thinned white icing.
  
• Cover with a damp dish towel and let sit several minutes.
• Stir with a rubber spatula to pop any air bubbles that have risen to the surface; transfer to a squeeze bottle when ready to use.
• Fill in the mug of beer in gold, using a toothpick to guide the icing into the corners. 
• Fill in the handle and foam with white.
• Let sit at least one hour.
• With a #1 or 2 tip, add a squiggle for the foam detail in white.
• With the #3 tip, add the mug detailing in black.
• Let dry overnight.

There are several ways to make the foamy top of the beer....a star tip, curlicues...but this squiggle is my new favorite.

My guys thought these were very cool.....I hope yours do, too!