A fun, champagne flute shaped cookie filled with a glittery surprise. These new year's piñata cookies are perfect to welcome 2021!

My reflection of 2020

The year of 2020 is finally coming to an end. I think it's safe to say this year was not what we all expected, and whether it turned for the better or worse we can all take something away from it.

This year was a year of big changes for me. I had a moment a couple of weeks ago when I sat there and said "I haven't achieved much this year..." to which my friend almost slapped me. From my point of view I was working towards more, but never quite reaching my ultimate goal. From my friends perspective I was running around with barely any time to breathe. I've always held huge expectations for myself and all I needed to do was sit back and take in everything I had done.

Champagne shaped cookies filled with sprinkles

When it comes to this blog, I feel like I've been running it for eternity, but in reality it's only just hit one year. 2020 has been a learning curve for me in which I strengthened by recipe development, food photography, social media management and so much more. I've still got a lot to go, but looking at my first blog posts compared to now, I have to say I'm kinda proud of myself. I hope you all come along with me on my blogging journey, and I promise I will always try my best to give you the best content I can.

On the other hand, my blog wasn't the only thing I had done all year! It was only this year when I graduated university, started a youtube channel, built my dessert business, wrote my first ebook, developed my brand, moved out all by myself... and the list goes on. Instead of focusing on everything I hadn't yet achieved, milestones I wished I had reached and things that I regretted. I've realised how grateful I am for everything that I have done, all the people I spent the year with and all the people that have supported me.

Thank you

Thank YOU for reading this and the many that have stopped by. The love and support I've received from so many is unmeasurable and I am so lucky to have an outlet where I can share all my tips and recipes. I love you all, thank you, and I wish you all the best in 2021!

Back to the recipe

I wanted to do something a little bit fun for New Year's, so why not a piñata cookie. Crack (or bite) into one of these and a surprise centre of sprinkles flows out! And what better shape to make them than little celebratory champagne flutes. Of course the cookies are up to your imagination so if you would like to them in any other shape it's up to you.

Some tips when making these New Year's Piñata Cookies

Don't skip freezing the rolled dough

Freezing the dough helps the cookies keep their structure when they are baked, so they don't melt into an unrecognisable blob. It also makes it easier to cut and transfer the shapes.

Keep an eye on the cookies

These cookies don't take very long to bake, but they will burn easily due to the shape of the champagne flutes. Keep an eye on the cookies in their last 5 minutes of baking.

Careful gluing

When gluing the pieces of the piñata cookie together be careful as the cookies break easily. After gluing the three pieces together don't move them until they have dried completely.

Dry completely

Royal icing takes time to dry, and it won't be 100% dry for 24 hours. Be careful with the icing when handling the cookies before then.

If you liked this recipe make sure to leave me a comment and rating down below, I would love to know how you went.

Also, don't forget to tag me on Instagram @catherine.desserts and hashtag #cattycakes so I can see and share your desserts. Follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, and TikTok for more of my baking creations and updates! Until next time... happy caking!

New Years Piñata Cookies

Print Recipe

Yield: 10 1x

Ingredients

Scale

Sugar Cookie

250 g Unsalted butter
210 g Caster sugar
1 Large egg
375 g Plain flour
1 tsp Baking powder
Your choice of sprinkles

Royal Icing

1 Egg white
265 g Icing/ Confectioners sugar
35 g Extra Icing/ Confectioners sugar

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Instructions

Sugar cookie

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a medium sized bowl
In another medium sized bowl beat the butter and caster sugar together until pale, light and fluffy
Add the egg to the butter and beat until combined
Add the flour mixture slowly to the butter mixture until completely combined
Turn out onto a work surface and knead until smooth
Roll out into two large rectangles and place in the freezer for at least half an hour
Preheat the oven to 180C/ 360F
Cut out the two sheets of rolled out dough into champagne flute shapes (I used a piece of cardboard create a template, and cut around that to make the cookies, makes approx 30 flutes)
In the centre of 10 flutes cut out a rectangle of dough (this is where you will store the sprinkles for the pinata effect)
Place flutes onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly golden brown

Royal Icing

Place the egg whites in a stainless-steel bowl over a small pot of boiling water on the stove
Whisk the egg whites until warm and remove
Whisk in the 2 cups of icing sugar, a spoonful at a time until well combined
Take out half of the icing and put it to the side
Add tan food colouring to one half until desired colour is reached (for champagne)
Into the other half add the extra ¼ cup of icing sugar and mix well (for the glass and glue), it should be a thick but pipe-able consistency- if not add more icing sugar or water to adjust the consistency

Assembly

Lay the cookie with a rectangle cut out on top of a whole cookie
Glue the two together with some white royal icing by piping a border of icing along the edges of the bottom cookie
Fill with your choice of sprinkles until just full
Pipe a line of royal icing along the border of the cookie with the rectangle cut out and place another full cookie on top to seal in the sprinkles
While not moving them from their places pipe the outline of the champagne flutes onto the tops of the cookies
Allow the cookies to dry for 2 hours
Finish decorating by "filling" the glasses with tan royal icing, topping with white royal icing to resemble foam, and piping a few small dots of white to resemble bubbles
Allow to full dry fully for 6-8 hours before packaging! (if you have some lustre dust you can brush that on too!)