You can repurpose your tried-and-true cookie cutters to bake something completely different. Here's how!
12 New Ways to Repurpose Cookie Cutter Shapes
Updated on Feb. 15, 2024
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Elf Cookies
Total Time
55 min
Servings
28 cookies
From the Recipe Creator:
A sweet frosting glaze, colorful candies and well-placed almond slices turn these sugar cookie diamonds into a big batch of Santa’s helpers. TIP: Bake a batch of the adorable elves as a classroom treat or use a few to brighten each of your cookie trays. —Taste of Home Test Kitchen, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Nutrition Facts:
1 cookie: 101 calories, 3g fat (1g saturated fat), 4mg cholesterol, 43mg sodium, 17g carbohydrate (12g sugars, 0 fiber), 1g protein.
Watermelon Made With a Moon Cutter
Patti Paige, the author of You Can’t Judge a Cookie by Its Cutter and creator of Baked Ideas, transforms a crescent moon cutter into a slice of watermelon using a fresh color palette. The summer-themed cookie even looks like it’s been nibbled on.
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Santa Star Cookies
Total Time
1 hour 40 min
Servings
about 6 dozen
From the Recipe Creator:
Cookie baking can't get any more fun than when you are making—and decorating—these adorable Santa cookies. But they're not too cute to eat! —Taste of Home Test Kitchen
Nutrition Facts:
1 cookie: 117 calories, 5g fat (3g saturated fat), 15mg cholesterol, 85mg sodium, 16g carbohydrate (9g sugars, 0 fiber), 1g protein.
Bumblebees Made With a Heart Cutter
Terri of Fresh Cut Flours put her Valentine’s heart-shaped cookie cutter to good use by reimagining it as a tiny bumblebee. After baking the plain heart cutouts, use icing to turn the rounded edge of the heart into fluttering wings.
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Roses Made With an Acorn Cutter
Fall-themed cutters can be turned into different objects as the weather changes. Clough’D 9 Cookies flipped an acorn-shaped cutter upside-down to make a rose. Turn the acorn cap into the rose’s stem and leaves, decorating the acorn’s body as the petals.
Check out the 11 cookie cutters you absolutely must have.
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Touchdown Cookies
Total Time
35 min
Servings
4-1/2 dozen
From the Recipe Creator:
With some simple touches, you can transform regular sugar cookies into a special sweet treat for the football fans at your party. —Sister Judith LaBrozzi, Canton, Ohio
Nutrition Facts:
1 cookie: 108 calories, 4g fat (2g saturated fat), 16mg cholesterol, 53mg sodium, 18g carbohydrate (12g sugars, 0 fiber), 1g protein.
Farm Animals Made With a Tulip Cutter
Elizabeth of The Circle Bake Shop had an idea when she saw her spring tulip cookie cutters. Decorating the tulip’s petals as a head and ears, she made the flower cutters into friendly farm animals.
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Elf Dresses Made With a Butterfly Cutter
While finishing up her holiday baking, Sarah of Klickitat Street decided to flip a butterfly-shaped cookie cutter upside-down to make a festive elf “belly.” She used icing to turn the butterfly’s antennae into curly elf shoes, the large wings into the skirt and the smaller wings into the top of a dress.
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Nurses Made With a Skull Cutter
Skull cookies don’t have to be scary! Callye of Sweet Sugarbelle transformed her skull-shaped cutouts into friendly nurses’ heads. The skull cutter can be flipped so that the jaw and mouth become nurse hats, and the large portion of the skull becomes the nurse’s face.
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Ghosts Made With a Christmas Bell Cutter
Holly and Gabe of Baked to Measure are certainly not afraid of ghosts—and these adorable ghost Halloween cookies are no exception. The bakers remade a Christmas bell as a cheerful ghost, keeping the same shape of the original cutter but decorating it with icing for a festive face-lift.
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Snowman as Dream Catcher
Move over, Frosty! When Holly of The Doughmestic Housewife was all done with her snowman-shaped cookie cutter, she turned it on its head to resemble a whimsical dream catcher. Use multiple colored accents and a white icing background for a nice touch.
See how you can repurpose cookie cutters for all sorts of thing
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Easter Cutters as Hungry Hippos
Egg-shaped and carrot-shaped cookie cutters are perfect for Easter, but they don’t have to be stashed away once the holiday is over. Giselle of Baking in Heels combined her egg and carrot shapes to create a classic Hungry, Hungry Hippos head, using the “egg” as the mouth and the “carrot” as the face.
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