Move over traditional cookies, kawaii Christmas cookies are taking over. Ever since my son got a book called, How to Draw Cute Stuff, I’d been looking for an excuse to make some kawaii cookies. Kawaii means “cute” in Japanese, but a quick search and you’ll find that it’s more than just a word, it’s an entire culture. Especially in artwork.
Preparations for these cookies took a lot of practice. I spent time with pencil and paper making sure I was able to get the ratios of the face just right. Eyes need to be far apart, but not too far apart. Mouth in between but not too far down. A face can easily go from looking kawaii to alien if the ratios are off by just a little bit. I piped these directly onto a dry, flooded cookie. However, you could also make the eyes as royal icing transfers, and drop them onto wet icing instead, as I did with these Valentine’s Day kawaii cookies.
The best thing about making large amounts of cookies is that you have enough to play around with the design. Sometimes I have to do a couple before I really get the look right. But never ask the kids to put the cookies on the platter…they might end up putting the ONE present cookie with a finger dent front and center. :/
Happy baking, friends. And Merry Christmas.
