I hope everyone is having a great summer. It’s been way too many days since my last post so I hope the cuteness overload of today’s cookies will make up for it. There is a reason I haven’t posted sooner. See, my dog ate my last batch of cookies. Nope, not even joking.

Everyone, this is my dog Louis:

Louis is a French bulldog. If you know anything about that breed, you’ll know that French bulldogs are as loving as they are stubborn and lately Louis has been acting up. Who knew he would develop an obsession with butter? Must be the French in him. So last month I came across some art by Kim Roundtree. Kim is a super talented illustrator and many of her homemade charms are Kawaii classics, like her Octobabies. I just could not wait to make a cookie version. I figured out how to shape the cookies, decorated them in different colors and set them all aside to dry before adding the last touches. Fast forward 3 hours later and my roommate Scott wonders why there are crumbs all over his backpack. That’s when, from the corner of my eye, I notice Louis lower his ears, duck his head and quietly exit the room. In other words, busted. Yes, my tank-shaped dog had managed to climb onto a backpack to get to a baking sheet full of cookies. I have to admit it was some of his best work. All but one cookie were gone.

So here we are, a week later, and I am finally ready to share these cookies with you. Let’s just say I can make them with my eyes closed now. =)

Here is how to make them:

 Let’s start by making our cookies.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light in color and fluffy in texture:

Add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until combined:

Add all the flour and mix on low speed until the dough comes together:

Roll out your dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350°F:

To figure out which cutters to use, I first sketched the octopuses. I wanted to try a few body shapes with some octopuses floating, some resting and some swimming away. I figured 2 cutters per shape would do the trick. I used a round cutter for the head part and various cutters for the bottom parts. I put them together on baking sheets and they merged as they baked:

To decorate them, I wanted to give “body” to the tentacles instead of one flat layer of icing. To do that, I first traced the shape of my baby octopus onto the cookie using a food coloring pen. Then I filled the outer tentacles and let them set. Finally I filled the rest of the body:

Once the icing was set, all I had to do was to add face details using a black food coloring pen and some pink icing for rosy cheeks.

I also wanted to give them little buddies so I made a few baby starfish. To decorate those, I simply covered each one with yellow icing:

And once that was set I added a few dots of the same icing to add texture:

Add face details with a food coloring pen and you’re good to go!

Happy Swimming!