These United by Love cookies were inspired by the Humanae Project by Angélica Dass. In her photography, Dass challenges how we think about skin color and ethnic identity. She places portraits in front of a Pantone background that matches the subject’s skin tone. In doing so, you start to think about color and race in a new way. We especially love to hear how she describes the variety of skin tones she has in her mixed-race family, “dark chocolate, cinnamon with a pinch of hazel and honey, somewhere between vanilla and strawberry yogurt”. When thinking about all the beautiful colors of skin out there, what is a better way to show that we are all united than with a heart.
Supplies needed for United by Love Cookies:
- Gluten-free Chocolate Cookie recipe
- Royal icing recipe in 6 skin tone colors and black
- Cookie cutters – large and small heart
Steps for making United by Love Cookies:
The fun part of making these cookies is the color mixing for all the different skin tones! First, we started by mixing up 3 icing colors and used those straight out of the bottle without adding additional colors. #3 is straight Americolor Chocolate Brown, #4 is Americolor Blush and #6 is Americolor Ivory. For #2, we used equal parts Americolor Chocolate Brown, Espresso, and Ivory. Next, we used more food color in equal parts of Americolor Chocolate Brown and Espresso to create #1. Finally, #5 is a mixture of Blush and Ivory with a tiny bit of Pro-Gel Strawberry.
Once you have mixed up the skin tone colors and a black pipe consistency icing, you can begin decorating.
Now, mix it up using different skin tones for the left and right hands:
