Pacman Sugar Cookies

My husband and I are 80s children. I guess that would make me *doing math in my head*… well… lets just say twenty something closer to thirty something.

If you were an 80s child, you’ll remember this game:

Click the image to play the free online game

Back in my day, games were simple, 2 dimensional and didn’t give you a seizure if you played it. LOL. Ah the good ol days. Now my little cousins and godsons play Grand Theft Auto. Granted the game is fun (I won’t lie) but joining gangs and stealing cars seems to send the wrong message to our impressionable youth, no? Maybe its just me.

Then again T remembers spending hours and many quarters playing Street Fighter 2 at his local arcade. Not Marvel vs. Capcom. Old school Street Fighter. He was always Guile. My brother was always Ryu.

When I questioned my little 7 year old cousin about the validity of stealing cars he gave me an exasperated sigh and replied “Its just a game, Cousin Clara.” HAHA. Kids are so cute. They say the darndest things.

Maybe I just long for simpler days when “debt”, “mortgage”, “foreclosure”, “bailout” and “economic depression” didn’t come up in conversation. It was more about “Santa”, “birthdays”, “gold stars”, “sleepovers” and “tater tots”. Pacman is one of those games that brings me back to simpler days.

Recipe adapted from Snack Or Die

INGREDIENTS

For sugar cookies
Sugar cookie recipe
1″ tulip cookie cutter
1-1/4″ circle cookie cutter
triangle cookie cutter

For royal icing – Makes about 3 cups
3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
4 cups (about 1 lb) confectioners’ sugar
6 tablespoons warm water
Various coloring gel (I used Ateco sky blue, royal blue, deep pink, orange, lemon yellow and super red)

INGREDIENTS

To make cookies—
Preheat oven 350F.

Prepare sugar cookie dough per recipe directions.

Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick between 2 pieces of wax paper. Cut out “energy dots” with small end of 1A piping tip and “power dots” with wide end of #12 piping tip, “Pacman” with circle cookie cutter (with triangle point cut out for mouth), “ghosts” with tulip cookie cutter.

[NOTES: Try to keep the thickness about 1/4 inch or maybe even a little less and chilled as possible before baking. If its too thick and/or soft it tends to spread more while baking and doesn’t hold shape as well. Example.]

Bake cookies for about 8 minutes. Cookies should feel firm but not color much. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.

While cookies are cooling, prepare the royal icing.

To make royal icing—
Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

To assemble cookies—
Divide up in bowls and color with coloring gel. (Leave some uncolored for white.) Fill parchment piping bag (or zip lock bag) with white icing and snip off a little tip to start outlining the cookies. Let icing set.

[NOTES: You could always switch it up and create the outline “dam” with the same color as the ghosts or pacman but I like the white contrast myself.]

[NOTES: I color the icing one color at a time so that if I run out of a certain color I can always add more white+gel to make more until I am ready for the next color.]

Prepare a piping bag for each color. If the icing is too stiff you can add a little water to get it to the flooding consistency that you want before filling the piping bag.

To make Pacman: Fill the cookie within the outline with yellow icing. Let cookie set.

To make energy and power dots: Fill cookie with white icing. Let set.

To make ghosts: Fill the cookie within the outline with red, orange, pink or sky blue depending on the ghost you’re making. Once icing is firm, add 2 white eye dots per ghost. Let set before adding a dark blue dot on top of the white for eyeball.

To make blue ghosts: Fill the cookie within the outline with royal blue icing. Once the icing is firm, pipe white icing for eyes and zigzag mouth.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A+
He absolutely loved them. At first he didn’t want to eat them. He’d rather play an imaginary pacman game with them but after popping one energy dot into his mouth he was hooked on the cookie.

Wifey rating: A+
These were so fun to make. It does take some patience and alot of time but they were worth it to see my husband’s face light up like a little boy. The fact that its all cookie cutters makes it easier. He thought it was so ingenious to use a tulip cutter for the ghosts. Wish I could take credit for that one b/c that *was* pretty darn smart.