Texas A&M Aggies Football Cookies

We don't have a family connection to Texas A&M, but boy, do we ever have a list of friends a mile long who are Aggies. Several of Jack's friends headed to A&M this fall, so some cookies were in order. You know how I love a care package.

If you're not very familiar with Texas A&M, you should know this. Aggies are fiercely loyal...and they have so many long-standing traditions. Just watch (and listen) to the crowd at an Aggie football game. It's pretty impressive.

In this post, I'll walk you through making the football player cookies, using Sweet Sugarbelle's cookie cutter and stencil. The football player shape and stencil come in the Sugarbelle Shape Shifter set. Later this week, I'll post the tutorial for making the football stands.

Obviously, you can use this tutorial to make football player cookies for ANY team, just swap the colors.

First though, let's talk about how to get that *perfect* maroon color. 

1. Recall that you have a bottle of AmeriColor maroon food coloring. Don't bother to check how much.
2. Mistakenly think that you also have a bottle of burgundy just in case you run out of maroon. 
3. Start tinting icing with the maroon coloring. Run out. 
4. Realize you, in fact, do NOT have any burgundy. 
5. Add Americolor Red Red. 
6. Run out of Red Red. 
7. Add Super Red and Royal Blue.
8. ...and just a touch of Super Black.
9. Pray. 

Yep, that's how you make it. Just 9 easy steps. Moral of the story, just buy maroon food coloring and make sure you have enough of it. The end. 

To make the football player cookies, you'll need:

• cut-out cookies, football player shape
• royal icing, divided and tinted with Americolor Maroon, Copper or Warm Brown, Bright White
• couplers and icing tips: #2, basketweave, #1
• Sugarbell football player stencil & food coloring pen
• disposable icing bags
• squeeze bottles (I love Sugarbelle's) 
• toothpicks or scribe tool
• black food coloring pen

Use the Sugarbelle food coloring pen and stencil to mark the areas for face, arms, and legs.

Outline the cookies using #2 tips and copper or warm brown for the face and arms, and in this case, maroon and white for the helmet and uniform.

Reserve some of the white and maroon piping consistency icing before thinning the rest. 

Thin the icings with water, a bit at a time. Stir gently with a spatula until the icing is thick and smooth, and a ribbon of icing dropped back onto itself disappears in a count of "one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two." If the icing is too thin, don't use it - it won't dry well. Stir in more sifted powdered sugar to thicken.

Cover the icing with a damp dish towel and let rest for a few minutes. Stir gently to remove any large air bubbles and pour into squeeze bottles. Fill in the outlines. Use a toothpick to guide to edges and pop air bubbles.

Note: let the icing set for 30 minutes or so before adding another color touching it.

Let the cookies dry for at least an hour. I like to use an oscillating fan over my cookies.

Switch the tip on the white icing to a #1 and add the pant detail, the outline of the shirt, and helmet face guard thingy (technical term). Switch the tip again to a basketweave tip and use the flat side to pipe the stripe on the helmet.

Add numbers to the jerseys and pipe on armbands (the cuteness!) using maroon icing and a #2 tip. Switch to a #1 tip and add shoelaces.

Let the cookies dry, uncovered, 6-8 hours or overnight.

Use a black food coloring pen to add eyes to the faces.

Aren't these football players THE cutest? Sugarbelle's cutter and stencils make everything so easy....I just love them.

What colors will your football player cookies be wearing?