The smiley face has been living rent-free in my cookie ideas note for YEARS (okay like one year since I started the note). I keep a running list on my phone of designs I want to try and that smiley face just sits there, waiting for the right moment. Then I thought – what if I made the Cool S? And suddenly everything clicked: 90s notebook doodles!
I was never an artistic doodler, I’d do the same thing over and over again – was I alone?
Doodle Cookie Breakdown
This set includes five designs: the classic smiley face, bubble letters, the Cool S, a lightning bolt, and a yin yang.
I thought the lightning bolt would be the easiest to freehand. I was wrong. SO wrong. That first attempt was… questionable at best.
For the bubble letters, I originally planned to spell out “dude” for all of them, but decided to try “as if” and “whatever,” too. Turns out “dude” was the hardest to read and “whatever” – which I thought would be the hardest to nail – turned out absolutely perfect.
As for the cool S, my dyslexia had me constantly second-guessing where those angled lines went growing up and I felt that struggle all over again while decorating these cookies. Some things never change!
And lastly, here’s the fun part – I accidentally stuck my thumb into the first cool S cookie (I take top-down photos of the first version before recording at an angle and bumped it when moving it back onto the tray), and when I saw that thumbprint in the blue icing, I decided to add texture all around it. It looked even better that way.
The color palette made itself obvious: black, white, blue, and yellow. It feels exactly like a composition notebook with highlighters scattered around – which is probably exactly what your desk looked like in the 90s.
Supplies
- Brown sugar cookie base
- Royal icing
- Gel food coloring: black, white, blue, yellow
- Extra parchment paper for icing transfers
- Tipless piping bags
- Toothpick or scribe tool (or just use a spoon handle!)
- Printed template for icing transfers (included in the free guide)
Key Takeaways
- Happy accidents (like thumbprints) can become your favorite design elements
- The Cool S is universal… probably? I’m making that up based on zero research, but it feels true
Whether you spent your school years perfecting these doodles or struggling with them like I did, this collection gives you a second chance to master them – this time with way more delicious results. Download the free guide and let’s doodle on some cookies together!