My favorite video game of all time is Tetris. It’s simple, addicting, and oddly soothing. My love of the game was intensified when the tetriminos were colorized. Each tetrimino has a color and I stayed true to that with these cookies. I’m not overly thrilled with these cookies because my icing was more watery than it should have been — and the end result is a bit bumpy. But I try not to be one of those baking bloggers who only posts treats that turn out to be “perfect” — so here these are!
If you are a new to decorating with royal icing, here are some helpful tips and links:
- I used my grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, which is listed below. Another good cut-out cookie recipe can be found at Bridget’s wonderful Bake at 350 [1].
- I used a royal icing recipe from Annie’s Eats [2], which is listed below.
- If you are new to decorating with royal icing, please visit this post by Annie’s Eats [3], which will teach you about outlining and flooding. Bake at 350 [4] is also a great resource for cookie decorating and ideas (I love Bridget’s book, too!).
Here are the specifics on how I made these cookies:
- I bought the Tetris cookie cutters from Amazon. They come in a set, which costs about $15.
- I used Wilton gel dyes – red (for the Z piece), orange (for the L piece), yellow (for the O piece), leaf green (for the S piece), sky blue (for the I piece), royal blue (for the J piece), and violet (for the T piece).
- I outlined the cookies using white icing first — making the little compartments on each piece. When the outlines dried, I flooded the cookies with the corresponding colored icings.
Omi’s Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Beat butter and sugar. Add egg, sour cream, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients gradually. Chill the batter overnight or for at least 4 hours. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350F until golden (in true fashion, my grandma didn’t give a specific baking time. I baked the cookies for about 8 minutes).
You’ll get about three dozen Tetris pieces using this recipe. I’d suggest doubling the batch if you want more cookies.
White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes). Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping.
You will most likely need to make two batches of icing for this project — because of all the colors involved.