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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Next, grab the airbrush gun and get ready to have a little fun.
- 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.
- Airbrush one side of the basketball with the orange airbrush color so it will have a nice shadow.
- Let the airbrush color dry. It should only take a few seconds.
- 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.
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,
I love these!!! And they look pretty perfect to me! By the way, using orange airbrush color then piping over it is sheer genius! I can think of all kinds of ways to use that tip. Thank you!!!
Thanks, Kathy! I can’t wait to see what you do with it! Maybe we can try to use it as a shadow on some Halloween cookies. 😉
Looks so good! I want to try it now.
Your cookies are awesome. #goals
is there a way to make this if you don’t have an airbrush?
Sure you can make them without an airbrush. The airbrush makes it easy, but you can trace your cookie (so the template you make will fit perfectly) and draw the lines on a piece of parchment paper that fits your cookie size. If you don’t like to draw or don’t want to think hard about the basketball pattern, you can use clip art to make the pattern. If you use clip art you don’t have to think hard about where the lines should be.
Then, use a food-safe marker to draw the lines on the cookie and decorate. I like to cut the lines of the pattern (don’t cut them off completely) and bend them back so it’s easier to place it on the cookie. Here’s an example of how I do it:
https://thebearfootbaker.com/2019/07/simple-patriotic-wreath-cookies/
Or you can do it like this:
https://thebearfootbaker.com/2013/12/santa-cookies-new-favorite-cutter/
I don’t free-hand patterns like this because I like when the cookie look uniform so a template works best for me.
Hope this helps,
Lisa
how long do you let these dry after filling with the orange icing before you airbrush?
and how long do you let these dry until you draw in the black lines?
lastly how long do you let the finished cookie dry before packaging them?
I’m trying to have these ready by Friday, do you think baking and decorating on Tuesday would be okay? how do you store them in between
thanks!
how long do you let these dry after filling with the orange icing before you airbrush?
Hi Venus28,
The funny thing about airbrushing cookies is you can do it when the royal icing is wet or you can wait until it dries. Waiting until the icing dries is easier because you don’t risk damaging the icing before it becomes firm.
I like doing it when it’s wet sometimes, but most of the time I wait until the royal icing dries because it’s stress-free and I have more fun airbrushing.
and how long do you let these dry until you draw in the black lines?
If you wait for the royal icing to dry before you airbrush them, it doesn’t take long for the airbrush color to dry. Once it’s dried you can easily add the black lines.
lastly how long do you let the finished cookie dry before packaging them?
This is another one of those questions that’s hard to answer because of humidity. I live in a very humid climate so it may take eight to twelve hours for my royal icing to dry completely. I try to work things out so I complete decorating the cookies in the afternoon or early evening so I can let the cookies can dry overnight. I package them first thing in the morning because I’m a little impatient and watching them dry during the day makes me anxious! LOL
I have friends that live in a dry climate without a lot of humidity and their royal icing will dry in about four hours. So it’s hard to tell you how long it will take without knowing where you live.
I’m trying to have these ready by Friday, do you think baking and decorating on Tuesday would be okay?
I thing baking and decorating on Tuesday and having the cookies ready on Friday is a really good plan.
Decorate them in a cool dry place so you don’t end up with a ‘butter bleed’ which means the butter from the baked cookie will seep into the royal icing. It’ll make the dry royal icing look very blotchy. This is caused by heat. If your work area is too warm or hot or if you let the cookies dry in a window where the sun can hit them it might cause your royal icing to dry blotchy. It will look like dark spots or wet spots in your decorated cookies.
Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do once that happens. So be sure to keep the cookies cool before and as you decorate them. You don’t have to set the air conditioner to “0” but keep in mind heat isn’t the best thing for them.
Some people place the cookies on a paper towel before and as they decorate so the paper towels will absorb the butter.
how do you store them in between
I place the cookies in an airtight container once they’ve cooled from baking. Then, I take them out to decorate and I let them dry in front of a fan. Once they’re completely dry I package them in decorating bags or an airtight container.
If you try to dry the wet icing in an airtight container it won’t dry completely. It needs air to dry so don’t package them until they’re completely dry.
I hope this information helps.
I’m sorry it has taken me so long to answer your questions. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I had brain surgery four months ago and I’m very behind on catching up with my blog comments. Please forgive me and let me know if you have any other questions!
Lisa
Thanks for the amazing tutorial. Where can I get the basketball stencil from?
Hi Michelle,
I got the basketball stencil from The Cookie Countess. Here is the link: https://www.thecookiecountess.com/products/basketball.