dora the explorer cookies

My son has a friend named Olivia at his preschool, and recently her mom contacted me about making cookie favors for Olivia's birthday.  Since Olivia loves Dora the Explorer, we decided that they would be Dora cookies, as well as "O" cookies ("O" for Olivia).

I already had an "O" cookie cutter from my alphabet cookie cutter set, but I didn't have one for the Dora cookies.  Again, my husband came to the rescue and created me a custom cookie cutter (see here, here, and here for the other custom cutters he has made for me!), based on an outline of Dora which I drew for him.

Armed with my shiny new cookie cutter, I made the cookie dough, stamped out my cookies, and baked them using my favorite homemade sugar cookie recipe.

Next I made a batch of royal icing, and divided it according to how many colors I would need - white, black, dark brown, skin tone (and purple for the "O" cookies).

I used the skin tone royal icing to outline Dora's face, and the black royal icing to outline her hair.  Then I filled it in with runny royal icing in the same colors.

After I let the cookies dry for a few hours, I was ready to pipe the details.  I piped a brown outline on Dora's hair, and black outlines for her eyes, nose, and mouth.  Then I filled in her eyes with thinned white royal icing, and waited for that to dry before I added her brown eyes and black pupil.  Then I let the cookies dry overnight.

For the "O" cookies, I was disappointed that the cookie cutter in my set turned out to just be a circle!  I was surprised there was no inset circle to complete the "O".  So I just piped my own purple "O" outline, and filled it in with runny purple royal icing.

Then came the finishing touches ... a white dotted border on the "O" cookies, and a tiny white dot on each of Dora's eyes, to bring her to life.

Happy Birthday, Olivia!  Hope you enjoyed your cookies!