Ducktales woo-oo! Just in time for Christmas I’m making Scrooge’s money bin into a gingerbread house!
To make the Cookie Money Bin you will need:
You’ll Need:
- 4 c. all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
- 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
- 3 sticks soft unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
- 1 Tbl vanilla paste or extract
- 1 Tbl orange zest
- Thick royal icing
- Black and golden yellow food coloring
- A cup or two of cake crumbs
- A few tsp of buttercream icing
- A large cake board
- A food-safe marker
- A small piece of tissue paper
- Ziploc bags or pastry bags
- Various candies to decorate
- Lots of chocolate coins
- Set of templates (COMING SOON)
Let me show you how it’s done!
1. Make the cookie walls. Mix the flour, cardamom, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add orange zest and vanilla then add eggs and egg yolk one at a time, mixing after each addition. Scrap down bowl. Slowly add the flour until incorporated. Turn dough out onto work surface and bring together with hands. Cut into two equal pieces and flatten into discs. Wrap in cling film and chill in refrigerator for 30-40 minutes.
2. Make the dome. Make some cake pop dough by mixing some cake crumbles and a few tsp. of buttercream frosting. You don’t need a lot. (You could probably even make this out of more cookie dough.) Find a small bowl with a diameter a bit smaller than the top cookie piece. Line the bowl with cling film and press the cake pop dough into it. Chill for about an hour. Meanwhile, thinly roll out some yellow fondant between two sheets of wax paper. When the cake pop dough has chilled turn it out and cover with the fondant. Smooth it down with your fingers and cut off the excess with a knife. Make a round indentation in the top center of the dome and then use the back of the knife to make around 16 indented lines (don’t pierce the fondant) coming down from the middle point. Use a red spice drop and a toothpick to make a flag and then insert into the center of the dome. Set aside.
3. Bake the cookies. Once cookie dough has chilled roll it out to ~1/4 inch thickness on some parchment paper. TIP: use two thin books or magazines of the same height and place on either side of the dough for an easy height guide. Cover the books with wax paper if you don’t want to get them greasy. Cut out the cookie walls using the templates and a sharp knife or pizza cutter, remove the excess, and slide the parchment paper on to baking trays (make sure to leave a bit of space between cookies as they will spread when baking). Bake in a 375F oven for ~10-12 minutes or until the bottom edges start to go light golden brown. Keep an eye on it.
4. Trim the cookies. Once cookies are done immediately re-lay the templates on top of each piece and re-cut off any excess. Be careful, they will be HOT! Let cookies cool completely on a cooling rack before moving on.
5. Color the icing. Dye a little of the royal icing black and a little golden yellow. Thin out with a little water until they are a pipeable consistency. But each color in a separate sandwich bag, seal, and cut a tiny corner off with a pair of scissors to create piping bags.
6. Decorate the $ piece. Lay a piece of tissue paper over the $ template and trace over with a food safe marker. Then lay that on top of the small rectangular cookie and trace over again (the ink should have transferred through to the cookie) TIP: if you don’t plan on eating this then you can just use a Sharpie or other non-food safe marker. Pipe over that with black icing and outline with yellow icing. Let dry a few hours at least. Once dry you can glue that piece onto the FRONT piece with some royal icing.
7. Assemble the money bin. Pipe some thick royal icing on the center of the cake board and attach the bottom piece. Then attach the walls with more icing on the bottom and sides of each piece. Use some spice containers to help hold them up as they dry. TIP: the front piece is meant to lean a bit forward so you’ll def want some support there. I also like to pipe more icing up the inside seams for extra support. Let dry several hours or best overnight.
8. Decorate the board. Spread more icing all over the cake board and decorate with lots of candies.
9.Add the candy surprise! Fill the money bin with lots of chocolate coins and enjoy!
And there it is: my Ducktales Christmas Cookie Money Bin!
