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These baby bottle cookies are the perfect treat to bring to a baby shower, and they are easy to personalize using different colors, designs, and names written on the bottle.
If you want to make baby bottle cookies at home, but don’t know where to start, these step-by-step instructions will make sure you have gorgeous looking cookies when you’re finished to surprise your friends, family, or the future mom-to-be.
All of my decorated sugar cookies are made with my favorite cut-out sugar cookie recipe and royal icing, both of which are easy to make at home.
There are no crazy ingredients, just a bit of time for the chilling of the dough and then 8 to 10 minutes of mixing (hopefully with your electric mixer) for the royal icing and then wallah, perfectly shaped cookies every time!
These baby bottle cookies are:
- perfect to take as baby shower cookies
- wonderfully soft and chewy
- easy to make even if you have no experience
- a fun way to show your pregnant friends that you care
The main thing to remember is that you might want to practice using royal icing for a couple of minutes before going full out with your decorations, so make a few more cookies than you think you need.
Once you pick it up, it’s super easy and you’ll wonder why you didn’t decorate all of your cookies this way.
The other great thing is that these cookies will last for weeks at room temperature, which means you don’t have to make room in the fridge once they are made and there is no concern with food safety in terms of the royal icing as it’s made with meringue powder (my favorite brand here) and not egg whites.
Tips for Baking the Baby Bottle Cookies
The recipe for baby bottle cookies starts with a cut-out sugar cookie recipe.
The difference between this sugar cookie recipe and a soft sugar cookie recipe is that the cut-out sugar cookie recipe is meant for times where you want the cookie to hold its shape and not spread.
This is obviously essential to creating the final product that actually looks like a baby bottle and not a blob.
Similarly, a bit of a sturdier cookie is going to be much easier to decorate with royal icing.
If you want a soft sugar cookie that isn’t in any particular shape, then go ahead and use my soft sugar cookie recipe that will spread out into circles.
When you’re baking these cookies, test your oven with an oven thermometer and make sure that the temperature is accurate.
You want to bake them at a high enough heat that they set rather quickly, which helps prevent them spreading.
But you would be surprised how many people’s ovens are actually off when it comes to temperature!
Finally, make sure to put these cookies at least 2 inches apart on a baking tray.
Even though you shouldn’t get any spread, if you do have a bad batch, you can usually save it if they haven’t all run into each other.
Tips for Preparing the Icing for Baby Bottle Cookies
Decorating with royal icing is a skill that’s easy to pick up, though it does take attention to detail as you have to make sure that it’s at the right consistency for your cookies.
There is more information on decorating with royal icing in my royal icing recipe, but the basics are that you first want to mix for 8 to 10 minutes until you get a toothpaste like consistency of the icing (you should be able to turn the bowl over with nothing coming out).
You should also be making a thinner icing, made by watering down your final product, which will be the “flood” icing to fill the base of the cookies with.
This should be a honey like texture that’s not watery, but flows relatively easily out of the piping bag.
Can You Freeze Baby Bottle Cookies?
You can freeze the baby bottle cookie dough and you can freeze the cookies after they are baked, but avoid freezing the baby bottle cookies themselves once they are decorated as royal icing doesn’t freeze well.
Can You Store Baby Bottle Cookies at Room Temperature?
Yes, you can store baby bottle cookies at room temperature which is the best part!
No need to put them in the fridge.
The royal icing is made with meringue powder so it keeps at room temperature with no food safety issues.
Win!
How to Make and Decorate Baby Bottle Cookies
First, make a batch of baby bottle cookies using the cut-out sugar cookie recipe and baby cookie cutters.
Let the cookies cool.
While cooling, make your royal icing, being sure to make two different consistencies as outlined in the recipe and in about 3 different colors (I like white, pink, and another color of your choice but you can do whatever you want).
Once you have your royal icing in piping bags (I use these) and your cookies have cooled, start by outlining the base of the bottle in your first color.
Then, outline the top in a different color.
Next, fill in both sections with the colors to match the outline.
Let the cookie dry for about 2 hours to make sure the icing is hard enough to decorate on top of.
Add detail to the cookie, which can include outlining the bottle itself, adding marks like you would see on a regular baby bottle, or getting creative!
