Guest Picks: Nothing Cookie Cutter About Cookie Cutters
Cookie cutters have been around for a couple hundred years (though Martha Washington suggested cutting out dough with a beer glass in her cookbook), and the rise of the tin industry in the 19th century and the commercialization of Christmas helped cookie cutters thrive. The 20th century saw more variety of cutters as companies began advertising them with their flour and baking powder. Hallmark hit the market in the 1970s with their brightly colored character cutters. More recently, with the explosion of cookie decorating as a hobby of baking enthusiasts, it's no wonder that cookie cutter options have exploded as well.
Pretty much every shape you can imagine is available somewhere: angels, animals, holidays, seasons, sports, food, games, tools, hobbies, music, baby, birthday, flowers, graduation, hearts, bugs, stars, aliens, and the list goes on. But here are a few of the more clever and unusual shapes that might surprise you. And cookie cutters can be used for more than just cookies. Use them as stamps or stencils to make art, photo ornaments, birdfeeders. Use them to cut out brownies, sandwiches, cereal treats.
Oh cookie cutters, how I love thee. (Should I mention that the cutters I use most are my set of plain circles? Nah, I won't.) — Meaghan from The Decorated Cookie
You know, letterpress cookie cutters make a sweet ransom note.
Brains. BRAINS. Zombies aren't just for Halloween anymore.
Dinosaurs — now in 3-D! As they're exhausting their two dimensions, cookies are moving upwards and outwards.
Speaking of dimensions, geeks should rejoice because there are plenty of cutters for them. Check out these well-packaged portal cookie cutters.
Speaking of geeks, here are some Star Trek cookie cutters.
The voodoo doll cookie is just a wee bit sweeter when exacting revenge.
So these wood grain cookie cutters surprised me. I knew that pretty much all of the cutters in this collection existed, but I didn't know these did. Time to make trees!
Just for the record, I made some over-the-rim cookies ages ago, and fancied myself pretty clever. Now I'm seeing over-the-rim cutters popping up everywhere. Coincidence?
Believe it or not, just a few years ago mustache cookie cutters were hard to come by.
Science-themed cookie cutters may not surprise you, but these were also very hard to find a few years ago.
Om. These cookies will make you more attuned to the world around you and help you find your center.
If you're more into the martial arts, then ninjas will help you find your center.
You probably already know that Williams-Sonoma has the whole Star Wars line of cutters, yes? I didn't know they had these space ships, including the Death Star.
I own this set of cutters from Ikea. They're unusual because of their slightly warped shapes: The flowers are a bit askew, the hearts kind of wonky, the squares have rounded edges. Very rare.
If you didn't immediately recognize the grossly disproportional tires, this is a monster truck.
This shop is one of the best sources for quality copper cutters. Just one example of the jillions of cutters they offer is this aardvark.
It may not seem unusual, but I'm thinking how wowed my daughter would have been by this train set (complete with railroad signs) in her train-loving days. It's from one of my go-to cookie cutter sources.
You know, in case you were looking for an Alaska musher set. Also, this shop is one of my favorite sites to buy cutters, so I had to include it in this roundup.
Crafty? Did you know they have sewing machine cookie cutters?Next: The Easiest, Most Versatile Cake Stand You'll Ever Make
This set is one of the most impressive cookie cutter sets I've seen. OK, the most impressive.
Q