Making baby shower cookie favors is a great way to give guests a homemade treat that feels personal rather than mass produced. Any mom-to-be will surely appreciate them and the effort put forth, and you'll have a lot of fun creating them at the same time.
Making Baby Shower Cookie Favors From Scratch
If you are going to create your cookie favors from scratch, it is best to start with a trusted cookie recipe. Find out the mom-to-be's favorite flavor of cookie or choose a flavor that matches the theme of your shower. Don't forget to make a coordinating icing and include cute edible decorations.
Best Cookie Dough Recipes for Favors
From chocolate cookies to peanut butter, there is a base recipe for almost any cookie imaginable.
- Pumpkin cookies pair well with white chocolate icings and decorations. Choose from a soft or crunchy version to suit your taste and use them for a fall themed shower or a Cinderella baby shower.
- Classic chocolate chip cookies work great with a cookies-and-milk theme or a storybook theme for the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Use shaped cookie cutters to form the raw dough into fun shapes before cooking.
- One of the most versatile recipes for decorative cookies is a sugar cookie recipe. You can shape them, stack them, ice them, or stencil them and make a soft or crunchy version.
- For a winter, Christmas, or Gingerbread Man story themed shower, gingerbread cookies are ideal. You can make lighter and darker brown versions to use as the base for almost any human character.
- Create elegant chocolate-dipped cookies using a super easy shortbread cookie recipe. Alternatively, you can dust them with colored powdered sugar for a sweet look.
- If you know many guests have dietary restrictions or food allergies, try a gluten-free cookie recipe or a vegan cookie recipe to show you're truly making the favors with them in mind.
- Give the gift of a cookie-making experience when you make a cookie mix in a jar that includes the recipe for finishing the cookies.
Icing and Frosting Recipes
You'll want to choose the right type of icing for your design and cookie recipe. Stiffer frostings make a great base for decorations and piped designs while thinner recipes work best when using flooding techniques to color sections of your design.
- Fondant icing can be melted, rolled, poured, and hardened making it a versatile option for getting a smooth finish on cookies. Pour melted fondant icing over cookies to coat them or cut out the shape of your cookie for a flat look you can bind to the cookie with another frosting.
- Cookies are most often decorated using royal icing because it is easy to pipe into intricate designs and it hardens so you can package it without destroying your work.
- Cream cheese frosting pairs well with pumpkin and spice cookies and is often more palatable than the sugary alternatives. You can flavor and color the frosting, just keep in mind it will be thick and soft so it's best as a base coat for other designs.
- A simple vanilla glaze pairs with almost any flavor cookie and covers large cookies easily. You can stiffen up the recipe to your needs by adding more powdered sugar. This works well as the base coat for other decorations.
Edible Decoration Recipes
You can purchase edible cookie decorations in almost any shape, color, and flavor from sprinkles to 3-dimensional items. If you're an experienced decorator with time on your side, you can make your own edible decorations.
- Use a piping bag and icing tips to create different royal icing flowers. You can make the icing any color you want and create any flower from daisies to roses.
- An easy rolled fondant recipe uses only four ingredients to create a sheet of fondant you can create shapes and even basic letters from. The decorations will dry hard and you'll need to use royal icing to bind them to cookies.
- Create ornate cookies using edible stained glass, or melted candies, in cut out sections of your cookies. You can also break up the melted candies to make jewel-like sprinkles.
- Classic cupcake decorations such as sprinkles, colored sugars, and Dragées can be set in wet icing to decorate cookies too.
- If you like the look of fondant, but need a recipe that will dry harder and faster, try making your own gum paste for homemade decorations.
Decorating Store-Bought Cookies
Using store-bought cookies as your favor base will save you time and give all your favors a uniform look because the cookie shapes and sizes are more precise. When choosing this DIY baby shower cookie favor method, look for creative ways to transform the familiar-looking cookies.
Decorated Sandwich Cookie Ideas
Popular cookie brands like Oreo are loved by all. Choose a color and flavor combination that matches your shower theme.
- Pipe a royal icing design on the top of the sandwich cookie that matches the filling color and your theme.
- Coat the entire Oreo in melted chocolate and top with sprinkles.
- Dip half the cookie in colored white chocolate or frosting then pipe lines with black or another color to make the dipped half look like a diaper.
Elongated Cookie Ideas
Cookies like Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies or Nutter Butters have an elongated shape you can use to create baby shapes like swaddled babies, booties, and bottles.
- Dip the bottom half of the cookie in melted chocolate or spread icing on it. Pipe a circle for baby's head just above the frosted half which is the blanket, then add facial features.
- Cut each cookie in half then dip the tip of the jagged edge in brown frosting and coat with brown Jimmies to make little acorns for a woodland theme. Add a piece of a small pretzel rod to the top.
- Coat the cookie in blue or pink frosting/chocolate then add an edible bow in a matching color to the top to make simple baby booties.
- Coat the cookie in white frosting/chocolate then add a nipple-shaped fondant decoration to the top so it looks like a baby bottle. Pipe on a collar for a more authentic look.
Round or Shaped Cookie Ideas
Soft, round cookies in any flavor can easily be turned into fun baby shapes with some icing and a candy stick.
- Swirl two different colored icings in a spiral design then insert the stick in one end to make cookie lollipops.
- Decorate the cookie to look like a baby rattle or magic wand then insert the stick.
- Coat the cookie in a peach-colored icing then pipe on simple facial features like eyes, a nose, a mouth, and one curly hair to make baby faces.
Themed Baby Shower Cookie Favor Ideas
If you are giving cookie favors at your shower, you probably want them to match the overall baby shower theme. Think about what shapes and colors go with your theme then choose one that is easy to produce as a cookie.
- Looking Toward the Future: Give out colorful fortune cookie favors with thank you note fortunes. Use food coloring to shade the cookie dough into colors that match the décor of the shower before baking.
- Moon and Stars: Make one large, round cookie for each guest and coat it with a deep blue icing to represent the night sky. Add dots of yellow or white icing then drag each dot out slightly with a toothpick for an abstract starry night cookie.
- Teddy Bears: Use a teddy bear shaped cookie cutter and a specialty icing tip to create textured bear cookies.
- Storybook: Make three different sized thick square cookies and coat each in a different color frosting on the top, bottom, and sides. Stack one of each size color then pipe a book title on the edge of each cookie to make a stack of books.
- Classic Baby Items: Poke a hole in each cookie before you bake it. String two or three cookies together by threading ribbon through the cookie holes to make a cookie clothesline.
- Under the Sea: Use an edible cookie dough recipe to make cookie dough pops. Cover each one in colored chocolate then add candy eyes and gum paste fins to make floating cookie dough fish pops.
Ideas for Gender-Specific Cookie Favors
If you are making baby shower cookie favors and know the gender of the baby, you can have a lot of fun with pink or blue options. From storks carrying color-appropriate sacks to building block cookies decorated with the family's initials in blue or pink, the sky's the limit with gender-specific ideas.
Baby Girl Theme Cookie Favors
Baby girl cookies will most likely feature pinks and purples in shapes such as crowns or flowers.
- Ballerina: Make cookie "music" boxes by layering one square, two square cookies with their centers cut out, then a stained glass square cookie. Secure the bottom three layers with royal icing, fill the cookie box with candies, then set the stained glass cookie on top of the box.
- Princess: Use a castle cookie cutter or cut out your own then use a butter knife to carve out windows you can fill with melted candies for a stained glass castle cookie.
- Ladybug: Use an edible cookie dough recipe and fondant in red and black to create little ladybug cookie dough bites.
Baby Boy Theme Cookie Favors
Cookie favors for baby boys often include blues, browns, and greens in shapes like vehicles.
- Ninja: Use the cookie cutters from a Ninja-bread men cookie kit to make ninja cookies using your shower colors for their belts.
- Airplane: Elongated cookies easily turn into airplanes when you use one for the body then cut another in half and stick on either side with chocolate for the wings. Stick an M & M candy on the top for the cockpit.
- Camouflage: Separate sugar cookie dough to die one part light green, one part dark green, and leave the other plain. Piece together little chunks of each color to form one cookie then bake.
Packaging Options for Cookie Favors
When it comes to packaging your cookie favors, try to make the vessel match the cookie and shower theme. For highly decorative cookies, use clear packaging to show off your design.
Wrapped Cookie Ideas
You can use cellophane or any other clear wrap that's safe to use with food to keep cookies safe and visible.
- Create a cookie pop bouquet by securing a few cookie pops with a rubber band around their sticks. Wrap with cellophane just like you would a bouquet so the cookies stick out the top slightly.
- Package each cookie in its own paper CD envelope that has a window in it. Add a custom thank you label.
- Buy fold-over sandwich bags to hold the cookies and secure the opening with ribbon and a thank you note.
- Place cookies in a decorated brown paper bag and fold the top down several times. Punch one hole near each side in the fold then attach twine to both holes for a cookie bag with handle.
- Stack cookies then secure them with ribbon or string by setting the ribbon under the stack then tying it at the top of the stack.
Jarred Cookie Ideas
If you've saved up recycled glass jars or have a big budget for favors, they can be packaged in glass jars guest will also be able to reuse.
- Stack round cookies inside a tall glass jar then cover with a fabric-covered lid.
- Make tiny cookies and package them inside decorated empty baby food jars.
- Place one cookie in a clear plastic cup then glue a piece of cardstock to the opening. Set the cups upside-down for simple cookie display cases.
- Fill small, lidded cookie or candy jars with cookies so guests can eat the sweets and use the jar again.
Boxed Cookie Ideas
Get a classic bakery look when you package one or more cookies in cardboard.
- Cut a square of flexible cardboard that is about three times the size of your cookie. Cut the square so there is a spot for the cookie to rest in the center and four equal flaps. Place the cookie in the center and fold each flap over then secure the tiny package with string.
- Fill a decorative cupcake favor box with a stack of cookies.
- Line small gift boxes with parchment paper and fill with cookies.
- Recycle cardboard tubes by wrapping the outside in a cute baby wrapping paper, filling the tube with small cookies, then tying off both ends of the tube with ribbon.
Make Your Guests Feel Sweet
Edible baby shower favors such as cookies are popular because guests don't feel the need to hang onto them forever like other favors. The homemade look shows guests you took time to think of them and adds sincerity to your thank you gift.
