These vegan shortbread cookies are glammed up with chocolate royal icing and some festive stenciling. They’re perfect for enjoying at your next pumpkin carving party!

EDIT: this post is from 2011, but here in 2020 I’ve revamped it a bit, including an upgraded recipe and some substitution suggestions. So, please, enjoy the sentiments of old while getting the perks of the makeover!

Happy Halloween, everybody! I love the creativity involved in this holiday but, because it’s officially here, it means that Vegan MOFO 2011 is over! Boooo! Overall, it’s been fun sharing my adventures with everyone and finding out about the hundreds of cool vegan blogs out there. I can’t be too sad that it’s over knowing that I will continue, business as usual, posting on a consistent basis and meeting new bloggers! That being said, let us continue on to the delicious sugar cookies that I made for my friend’s pumpkin carving party on Saturday.

I was in a bit of a rush on Saturday, so this delicious treat was the amalgamation of a couple of different recipes. The sugar cookie recipe that I used was one that I found over at Chez Betty, whose heart cookies look adorable! (EDIT: for this recipe I’ve added a shortbread recipe that I developed a couple years after this post!) The only thing that I did differently was half the recipe and roll out the dough to used cookie cutters after I took it out of the refrigerator.

Next, I tried to figure out what to do with the decorations; was I going to use sprinkles? Was it going to be topped with icing? What flavor would the icing be? Oh, the hard decisions you have to make when baking! 😉 I started winging it, and this is where things get a little hazy as far as recipes go. For this updated version, I’ve nailed it down for you in the form of vegan, chocolate royal icing!

Substitutions + Ingredient Notes:

• Ground flaxseed – chia seeds will also work here, as it’s too create an “egg” for binding.
• Vegan butter – there are many options on the market now, that can cater to different allergies as well. But, coconut oil will also work in this recipe!
• Unbleached all-purpose flour – I feel that a 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose flour will also work in this application.
• Aquafaba AKA chickpea brine – this lil’ miracle ingredient is truly just the excess liquid from a can of chickpeas. You can also use brine from any other light-colored beans. If you cook your own beans, reduce the brine in a pan and cool to room temp so that it’s not too runny.
• Black cocoa powder – this cocoa powder is as it sounds, very dark, and has a robust chocolate flavor. You can also use dutch-processed cocoa powder here, but the icing will be a little lighter (still tasty, though!).
• Halloween stencils – I bought these back in 2011, and it looks like this set from Martha Stewart has been discontinued. BUT, you can find some other halloween cookie stencils.

Here are some other great halloween recipe ideas!

• Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Marbled Cake
• White Chocolate Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cups
• Halloween Cookie Shake
• Vegan Creepy Crème Truffles

Even after the stressing out about the unique way of icing these cookies, I brought them over to Sarah’s and everybody loved them! I probably should have made the whole recipe, but I think it’s better this way (with less cookies in my belly!).

I also brought another dish to the party, but I won’t be sharing that with you until later this week, perhaps tomorrow? 🙂 Instead, I will leave you with the end result of our pumpkin carving party! One pumpkin is a tad NSFW, and was not done by me! Can you guess which one is mine?

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Well, of course it would be the one with vegan pizza and beer on it! And my blog initials, too, dang I’m such a nerd! 😀

Again, Happy Halloween, everyone and I hope that you had a great weekend and Vegan MOFO! Stay safe and eat lots of vegan treats, I will probably just stuff my face with pumpkin beer and butter pecan icecream. 😉