Santa Link Cookie Cutter

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me - a cookie cutter to make a Santa Link cookie inspired by the new Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the switch.

Not wanting to make typical Christmas cookies, I took inspiration from the new Link's Awakening game and made a cookie cutter of Link!

This project was both fun AND delicious!

Here's how I put it together:

Supplies I used: (with affiliate links)

Link's Awakening: https://amzn.to/36QZrQ6

White filament - https://amzn.to/2MnqlY3

Coolie dough

Icing

Tools I used:

Inkscape - www.inkscape.org

Fusion 360 - https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/over...

3d printer - https://amzn.to/2YlOsLo

I started by choosing a reference picture of Link that I wanted, and brought it into Inkscape. Using the pen tool, I traced the outline of Link. For all the inside detail, I used a combination of the pen and circle tool to again trace out the shapes.

With everything was traced out, I used the edit tool to curve the lines to match the picture, and filled in any gaps or spaces that needed connected/filled.

Once the trace was done I exported it into Fusion.

With my trace now in Fusion, I used the Offset feature to offset every line in the trace (I offset the lines by 2mm, but that number may be different depending on how big your drawing is).

Once all the lines had been offset, I used the extrude feature to extrude the outline of Link 10mm. I then extruded all of the inside features to a height of 6mm (to ensure that the cookie would be embossed but not cut through).

The last step was the create a separate offset of the outline of Link. I selected the entire face of the picture and extruded it to -2mm (this creates the bottom 'plate' of the cookie cutter. I added a few holes to ensure the dough wouldn't stick in the smaller areas, then exported it to an OBJ file.

I used Cura to import my OBJ file and ensure that the size was what I wanted, then sent it to the 3d printer to be printed with the white filament.

The next step was to make the cookie dough.

You can use your own personal favorite cookie dough, but I just used a basic sugar cookie recipe. A good gingerbread recipe would also work well.

After making the dough, I let it sit in the fridge for a little while, then pulled it out and started rolling it into sheets.

Using the Link cookie cutter (and another rupee cutter I printed real quick) I cut the cookies out of the dough. I used a small knife to cut out some of the smaller areas (between Link's hat and the sword and between his boots), then placed the cookies on a baking tray.

I re-rolled the excess dough out and cut cookie after cookie until I was all out of dough.

I baked the cookies in the oven at 365 degrees for 7 minutes.

Depending on your type of oven the time may be shorter or longer, but 7 minutes was just right for my oven.

After taking them out of the oven I transferred the cookies to a cooling rack and let them cool.

While the cookies cooled, I made the icing for the cookies. Using a simple icing recipe, I made several batches of icing and added food coloring to each batch to give me the colors that I wanted.

This part can be a tricky process in trying to figure out the right amount of color without adding too much, or mixing colors the wrong way to get a color that you don't want (which usually ends up being a greyish brown. Bleh!)

After each batch of icing was the color I wanted it, I poured each color into its own piping bag. I cut off a tiny portion of the tip for when I decorated, just to ensure that too much wasn't coming out of the piping bag at once.

After the cookies were cool enough, I started icing.

I used red icing instead of the typical green for his outfit, adding a white bob at the end of his hat (giving him that Santa look).

After putting on the icing, I used a toothpick to move the icing around to even out some of the areas and fill in other areas that needed it.

Using black for his boots and red for his pants, it completed the festive outfit for our cookie-fied hero.

I used the rest of the icing colors, filing in his sword and shield.

After everything was colored and cooled, the cookies were done!

With the cookies done, they went quick.

If you make these cookies, they will go quick as well. Done right, they are dangerously delicious...

and festive...

and geeky...

all the good things!