How to Make Simple Basketball Cookies

I like sports but I wasn’t a huge fan of basketball until I married my husband because he’s a basketball kind of guy and I’m a football kind of girl. Once we had kids my heart opened up to the constant bouncing and swooshing of that orange ball. I still like football better, but one thing we can agree on is sharing a few simple basketball cookies.

How to Make Simple Basketball Cookies | The Bearfoot Baker

 

Supplies for Simple Basketball Cookies:
(may contain affiliate links)

Recipes:
Sugar Cookie Recipe
Royal Icing Recipe

Cookie Cutters:
Circle Cookie Cutter- You can use any size circle cookie cutter you’d like and I used a 3 1⁄2″ and a 1 1⁄2″ for this set of cookies.

Royal Icing Colors:
Black
Orange- Mix Orange food gel color with Lemon Yellow and a little Tulip Red. If you want a burnt orange you can a small amount (like one tiny bit) of chocolate brown food gel color.

Tools:
Tipless Decorating Bags
Turkey Lacer or toothpick

Optional:
Airbrush System with orange airbrush color
Basketball Stencil
Stencil Genie or one dozen magnets
Cookie Turntable
Genie Minimat

I’ve added a few new things to the supply list, but that doesn’t mean you need o purchase them. I recently bought a dozen magnets, a Cookie Turntable, and a Genie Minimat from The Cookie Countess because I’ve watched a few videos with Hillary using them. I wanted to give them a try for myself and I like them so you may see them in a few videos in the future.

How to Make Simple Basketball Cookies with Royal Icing | The Bearfoot Baker

  • Begin by baking a batch of your favorite sugar cookie recipe and cut out the circle shapes and bake.
  • Let the cookies cool completely before you begin to decorate.
  • Mix the orange and black colored royal icing and place in your decorating bags or bottles.
  • Outline the cookies with the orange royal icing.

Simple Basketball Cookies | The Bearfoot Baker

  • Flood the cookies with the orange icing because basketballs are orange, aren’t they? Some of them are orange and some have really cool designs, but we’re going to focus on orange today. You can wait a couple of minutes to let the outline dry or you can flood as soon as you make the outline. If you decide to flood right away, be careful because the icing sometimes falls off the edge of the cookies.

Basketball Cookies | The Bearfoot Baker

  • Use the turkey lacer to pop any air bubbles and to help smooth and even out the icing.
  • Let the icing dry completely because it’s easier to airbrush the cookies if the icing is dry. If you airbrush when the royal icing is wet you may damage your cookies. I’ve done it wet before and it’s pretty fun but I did damage a cookie or two.

How to Make Basketball Cookies | The Bearfoot Baker

  • Next, grab the airbrush gun and get ready to have a little fun.

How to Make Fun Basketball Cookies | The Bearfoot Baker

  • Place the basketball stencil in the Stencil Genie or use the magnets to hold it in place so the stencil doesn’t move as the air from the airbrush gun hit it.
  • Add a few drops of the orange airbrush color to the airbrush gun and spray the basketball design on the cookie.
  • Carefully remove the Stencil Genie by picking it straight up off the cookie. If you don’t pick it straight up you might smear the airbrush color.

How to Make Fun Basketball Cookies with Royal Icing | The Bearfoot Baker

  • Airbrush one side of the basketball with the orange airbrush color so it will have a nice shadow.

Make Simple Basketball Cookies | The Bearfoot Baker

  • Let the airbrush color dry. It should only take a few seconds.

How to Make These Fun Simple Basketball Cookies | The Bearfoot Baker

  • Now, all that you need to do is add the black lines to the basketball.
  • Let the cookies dry completely before you package them.

How to Make Simple Basketball Cookies

I’ll make a confession. These cookies aren’t perfect. I got a little spray happy when I was airbrushing the shadow on the edges. All I needed to do was wait a few seconds for the airbrush color to dry, but guess who got impatient? That right, me.

So when you make your simple basketball cookies be patient and don’t rush the airbrushing. Take your time and your cookies will look better than mine.

How to Make Fun Simple Basketball Cookies with Royal Icing | The Bearfoot Baker

Now that we know how to make simple basketball cookies you can make them for March Madness, your kids birthdays, Father’s Day or just to make your husband and kiddo’s happy. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll like to make a few golf cookies and learn how to hit that tiny little ball with that crazy long club. Maybe.

Bear hugs,

Lisa