University of Maryland Terrapin Sugar Cookies

University of Maryland Terrapin Sugar Cookies

posted in: Blog | 9

The husband of a friend of mine attended the University of Maryland, and his colleague attended the University of Virginia. They have an ongoing bet for every time the two teams play, and the loser has to bring dessert to share at their next lab meeting. In February, UMD lost a basketball game to UVA, and Larry decided that it would be very comical to bring in a dessert that was decorated in some way to represent the UMD mascot, the terrapin.

I was very excited to make some UMD Terps cookies for Larry to take in, and even more excited to come up with the design myself. For the majority of the cookies I’ve decorated so far, I’ve found photos online and attempted to recreate them. I didn’t come across any decorated sugar cookies that I thought would be perfect, so instead I searched for inspiration in pictures of real terrapins, the UMD terrapin mascot, and different turtle sugar cookies.

Once I had settled on the colors I wanted to use and had figured out the design I thought would work best on the shell, I started to think about the face. I liked the simplicity of just an eye on most of the turtle sugar cookies I looked at (I did try some with mouths and didn’t like the way they looked), but I decided I needed an ‘angry eye’ to match the look of the Terps mascot. I was nervous to add the eye directly to the cookie for fear of messing it up, so instead I piped them all onto waxed paper with royal icing and transferred them to the cookies once they were dried. I had used this same royal icing transfer method when I added birthday candles to the birthday cookies I made last month and also when I added bowling pins to some bowling cookies in the summer.

My parents were here visiting while I was working on these cookies, and my mom was excited to take some photos while I worked. I was really pleased with how these cookies came together and am happy to share my mom’s pictures of the process I took when creating them.

9 Responses

  1. Filomena

    They look so cool! You’ve got quite the steady hand.

    • Becky {Rebecca Cakes & Bakes}

      Sometimes, F. There are some pretty shaky lines sometimes, too!

  2. Anthea

    you must have so much patience with all the detail that went into the shells! (this is a really fun way to feel better about losing a bet!!)

    • Becky {Rebecca Cakes & Bakes}

      Definitely a more fun way to deal with losing a bet!

  3. Meghan

    Do you sell your work? I’d love to purchase for our alumni.

  4. Denise

    Hi there. Are you local in Maryland? I’m looking for some Terp desserts for my sons UM graduation on May 19.

    • Becky {Rebecca Cakes & Bakes}

      Congratulations to your son!

      I live in Houston.

  5. Bethany

    These are so great! Whenever I make sugar cookies I try to stay away from using black and red icing..how did you make these colors so dark?

    • Becky {Rebecca Cakes & Bakes}

      Thanks, Bethany! I use Americolor brand Super Red and Black. I always intend to make it the day before to let the colors develop, but usually I procrastinate and make it right when I need it, so I probably end up adding more color than I need to!