Corpse Bride Butterfly Sugar Cookies

I adore Tim Burton’s whimsically beautiful yet sweetly sad film Corpse Bride, and applaud its deceased heroine Emily’s unrelenting search for true love. The butterfly motif of the film is so lovely, and I felt a simple, flooded and decorated butter cookie cutout would be the perfect Valentine’s Day representation of this dark story of both true and unrequited love. I used the following sugar cookie recipe, found here, which produces a sturdy, all-pupose sugar cookie ideal for making cutouts:

1 c unsalted butter
1 c sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
3 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar, then beat in eggs and vanilla. In a second bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Sift flour mixture into butter mixture 1 cup at a time and blend well. Roll dough into a ball and chill 3 to 4 hours or overnight. When ready to prepare cookies, preheat oven to 350°. Roll out dough and cut into shapes. Bake for 10-15 minutes, then place cookies on a rack to cool.

I opted to flood and then decorate my cookies after they were baked and cooled, and look forward to using this recipe again, perhaps changing up the flavoring from vanilla to almond or lemon for variety!

Dress: Kate Spade New York (old)
Lips: Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid Lipstick in America Doll
Brows: Anastasia Beverly Hills DIPBROWˆ Pomade in Auburn

UPDATE. I’m also adding here images of a cake I made in February 2021 - Fondant-covered lemon cake, raspberry sour belt hair, hand-painted wafer butterflies perched on cake pop sticks, and a fondant rose veil topper. I had long since stopped updating this blog when I baked this, but it seemed fair enough to have this cake live with these Corpse Bride-themed cookies (the images can also be seen on my Instagram).