W is For Watermelon Cookies

My son’s preschool class has been steadily moving through the alphabet over the course of the school year. Each week or so, they learn a new letter and practice with worksheets and repetition. At the end of the week, they have Show and Tell where they bring an item that begins with that letter in a sealed paper bag and the other students guess what it is. They also get to enjoy a treat starting with the letter, which is usually prepared by a parent volunteer.

My letters this year were J and W.

For the letter J, I made these shark fin Jell-O cups because my son is quite smitten by sharks. It turns out, however, that he’s not so wild about Jell-O. Go figure! Sugar + whip cream… what’s not to like, right? Maybe it’s a texture thing…

Anyway, for the letter W, I took a more traditional route and made these sweet watermelon cookies.

My first inclination was to make whales, but I could not find a whale cookie cutter in a store without buying a set of 110 of its animal friends. Then I saw an advertisement where a Man in the Moon cutter looked like a watermelon with a bite taken out when it was turned on its side. I decided to give it a try, and just to be sure the kids knew it was a slice of watermelon, I packaged the cookies in these pretty “W is for Watermelon” baggies.

I’ve included the label as a free printable if you’d like to make a batch. Just click here to download.

With summer just around the corner, I think these watermelon cookies would make great sweet treats for backyard barbecues and beach picnics. I still think they look like the Man in the Moon turned sideways, however, so I recommend using one of these inventive ways to cut your cookies instead:

• Sweet Sugarbelle’s watermelon slice cookies that uses a round tupperware cut into sixths
• Glorious Treat’s watermelon shaped cookies that uses a circle and a scalloped heart cutter

As for the cookie itself, I swear by this sugar cookie recipe. This royal icing recipe is also on point. They are tried and true recipes, simple and delicious.

I mean, just look at those cookies! Don’t you want to take a bite?

My son couldn’t resist and ate a few as is.

But decorating is the fun part for me, so this is what I did after the cookies were baked and cooled.

{step 1}  Start by drawing the rind along the curve with green icing, #2 tip. Immediately follow along the inside of the green curve with white icing, #2 tip.

{step 2}  Line the top of the watermelon with reddish-pink icing, #2 tip. Let these lines dry about 30 minutes before filling in the cookies.

{step 3}  Fill the “flesh” of the watermelon with reddish-pink flood icing. While the icing is still wet, place candy-coated chocolate-covered sunflower seeds. (I like the ones from Trader Joe’s.) Alternatively, you could wait until the icing is dry and draw “seeds” with black icing or a food marker.

{step 4}  Add texture to the rind by painting darker green stripes with food coloring gel mixed with clear vanilla/almond extract as per Glorious Treat’s technique.

{step 5}  Let the cookies dry overnight, then package in mini favor bags topped with the “W is for Watermelon” label.

I try to be mindful of folks with food allergies so I included sour watermelon gummy candy for a classmate with a gluten intolerance.

Thanks to Sweet Sugarbelle’s recipes and easy-to-follow tutorials, I have been inspired to try something new. Even more so, I am now moved to improve my cookie creations because I’m simply having fun with it! I hope you’ll be encouraged to find that something that feeds your creative soul, too, and then go do it! Because isn’t that what life is all about? Enjoy!  — v.