Controller Cookies

Back in March, I attended two game parties/potlucks. For both parties, I volunteered to bring dessert, my favorite course to make. I wanted to bake something game related, and then I remembered Ms. Humble's adorable Wii controller cookies. I decided then and there that I'd bring game console controller cookies to the parties.

I knew that a variety of consoles would be at each party, so I ended up making three types of controller cookies: Xbox 360, Nintendo 64, and Playstation 2. It was fun going to the store to pick out candies for making the controller buttons. My most successful find was Crows, a black licorice version of Dots, perfect for simulating all those black and gray rubber buttons on the controllers. Other decorations I used were: Good & Fruity, the fruit version of Good & Plenty, mini M&Ms, white chocolate chips, and mini rainbow circle sprinkles.

Overall, these cookies were well received. They were the perfect dessert to end a potluck and segue into some intense video gaming. Or for some, something sweet to nibble on while waiting to play Rockband or Mario Party. So next time you attend a game party, consider bringing some controller cookies. At the very least, they'll give everyone something to talk about :D.

Controller Cookies

Cutting Dough

To customize the cookie shapes, I made stencils and traced them out onto the dough with a knife. So after making the cookie dough, print out the stencils provided above, and use them to cut out the cookies. Then bake them and let them totally cool before decorating. When printed, each stencil should be 2 5/8 inches wide at the widest point (theses stencils might have to be stretched out when copy and pasted onto MS Word).

Trimming Candy
Crows

To use the Crows, take kitchen shears and snip off the tops and bottoms of the gumdrops. These can be used directly as buttons or the Crow bottoms can be further modified with kitchen shears to form "+" control pads or other buttons, depending on the controller.

Good & Fruity

The ends of the Good & Fruity candies need to be cut off to make Xbox controller buttons. So with a knife, carefully cut off the tips of the red, blue, green, and yellow candies. A warning, this might take a couple of tries because the candy coating tends to crack rather easily.

PS2 Controllers
baked sugar cookies
sugar cookie icing
black food coloring
pink food coloring
red food coloring
green food coloring
Crows candy

Tint most of the icing black, setting aside a little bit of white icing for the the last step. Next, use a spoon to spread black icing on the cookies. Take two Crows tops and place them as the two larger gray buttons for each cookie. Then, take two Crows bottoms and cut them to make the two control pads on the top left and right sides. Use the scraps to make the three middle buttons: the triangle and the two rectangles.

Lastly, take that white icing that was set aside and tint 1/4 of it green, 1/4 pink, 1/4 red, and 1/4 light gray. With a toothpick, trace out a green triangle on the top button of the right control pad. Trace out a red circle on the right button. Trace a gray "X" on the bottom button. Finally trace out a pink square on the left button.

*Edit 7/7/11: When placing the rectangle and triangle buttons, follow the illustration, not the photos of the actual cookies. I'm embarrassed to say the buttons on my actual cookies are switched around. Thank you Jay, for pointing it out!

Xbox 360 Controllers
baked sugar cookies
sugar cookie icing
yellow food coloring
green food coloring
black food coloring
Crows candy
Good & Fruity candy

Tint most of the icing a very light gray, and tint a small portion of the icing neon yellow green with the yellow and green food coloring. With a spoon, cover the surface of each cookie with the light gray icing. Take two Crows tops and one Crows bottom and place them on the cookie as shown above. Then take the tips of one yellow, one blue, one red, and one green Good & Fruity, and place them as shown above to make the right control pad.

Next, take the yellow-green icing and make a circle in the top center of each cookie. Wait for it to dry. Then take the leftover light gray icing and make a circle within the yellow-green circle. Wait for it to dry. Lastly, take any leftover icing and tint it a dark gray. Use a toothpick and draw a dark gray "X" in the center of each light gray circle. Then make 4 dots, one on each "corner" outside of the circle.

N64 Controllers
baked sugar cookies
sugar cookie icing
blue food coloring
purple food coloring
Crows candy
mini M&Ms
white chocolate chips
mini yellow circle sprinkles

Tint all of the icing blue-purple, or whatever color you want the controllers to be. With a spoon, cover all the cookies with this icing. Next, take one of the Crows bottoms and cut out a "+" with kitchen shears and place it on the left side of the cookie. Take a red mini M&M and place it in the center of each cookie. Take green and blue mini M&Ms and place them as shown above to make the "A" and "B" buttons of the controller. Place four mini yellow circle sprinkles above that to make the right control pad.

Now take any leftover icing and tint it dark gray. Form a circle of gray icing with a diameter larger than the chocolate chip's below the red M&M on the cookie. Stick a white chocolate chip upside down in the center of the icing circle and hold it there until it can stand on its own. Wait for the icing to totally dry. Lastly, with a toothpick, carefully trace concentric circles, like a bulls-eye target, on the white chocolate chip with the dark gray icing.

Size comparison of cookie to actual controller, photo by my friend.