Name: Clam Shell Cookies For The Best Mermaid Party
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Cuisine: American food
Ingredients: 1/4 cup butter; 1/4 cup Crisco Shortening; 1/2 tsp. almond extract; 1/4 tsp. vanilla; 3 cups powdered sugar; 1-1/2 Tblsp. milk; Blue gel food coloring; 1 vanilla bean; 3/4 cup butter softened; 3/4 cup sugar; 1 large egg, lightly beaten; 1/2 tsp vanilla extract; 2 – 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; 1/4 tsp salt; 1 vanilla bean; 3/4 cup butter softened

Desserts For the Mermaid Party – Cookies and Cupcakes

These little clamshell cookies, complete with pearl, and mermaid tail mini cupcakes are the perfect addition to a Mermaid or Under The Sea party. The clam cookies are presented on a silver shell platter and the mermaid tail cupcakes are featured on an oblong silver tray. What better way is there to display these goodies?

Make Cookies And Cupcakes For The Best Mermaid Party - Part 1 — Clam Shell Cookies and Mermaid Tail Cupcakes

The Cookies

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This shell cookie cutter embossing mold set is found on Amazon. For this cookie project, all of the shell cookies are cut using the largest of the three. The cutter measures 1-1/4″ x 1-1/2″. It works perfectly. You should have a little bowl of flour to dip the cutter into between each cutting so that the dough doesn’t stick in the detailed indentations. You simply cut with the cutter and then, press down gently but firmly on the plunger to emboss the shell design.

This is one of my favorite cookie recipes because the dough doesn’t spread and lose all of the details like some cookie doughs. Since the Clam Cookies with Pearls are sandwich cookies, you will need two of the cut cookies for each. Aren’t these adorable?

Clam Shell Cookies - Make Cookies and Cupcakes For The Best Mermaid Party — Clam Shell Cookies With Pearl

Clam and Pearl Sugar Cookies

1 vanilla bean
3/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 – 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Carefully scrape out seeds, using a small sharp knife. Set seeds aside.

Beat butter in a large mixing bowl at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar and vanilla bean seeds, beating until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract, mixing well.

Combine flour and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until smooth. Shape the dough into two discs. Wrap each in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour.

Make Cookies and Cupcakes For The Best Mermaid Party — Shell cookie cutters.

Roll each disc to 1/4″ thickness on a lightly floured surface. (As an alternative, for easy cleanup, roll out and cut on wax paper or plastic wrap.) Cut with cookie cutters Place on lightly greased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove cookies to a wire rack and cool.

The Frosting:

Prepare the frosting. I chose this frosting because it has Crisco shortening in it and it forms a little bit of a crust, which seemed appropriate for cookies. If the frosting is too thick for piping, add a tiny bit more cream until you have the right consistency.

**Almond frosting

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup Crisco Shortening
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/4 tsp. vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
1-1/2 Tblsp. milk
Vanilla Sugar Cookies with Almond Buttercream

Cream the butter and shortening together in a medium-sized bowl. Mix in the almond and vanilla flavorings. Add the powdered sugar along with the milk and beat well with a mixer.

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Add food coloring. I used a couple of drops of the pastel blue Wilton Gel Pastel Food Coloring. This set has yellow, pink, blue, and green. I wish I had added a couple more drops. The frosting was a pretty pastel but in retrospect, a little darker shade would have shown off the pearl more and would look better with the pool noodle tablescape.

Pipe frosting onto one of the baked cookies, piping less frosting toward the back and a little more toward the front where the pearl will be placed. (I used a Wilton 1M open star piping tip.) Place another cookie on top of the frosting, pressing down in the back. Press a pearl in the middle of the frosting between the top and bottom cookies. These are 12mm edible sugar pearls. You can find them here.► Ivory Edible Sugar Pearls Cake Decorating Supplies. You want to use a larger pearl. The small ones won’t show as well.