One night, back when my friends and I were teenagers, we were doing our hair, 80′s style. My friend Annie turned to me and looked at my make up.
“That looks great! You look like a prostitute” she said, not unkindly. “I want to look like that” she said smudging her eyeliner while looking at a picture of Madonna. “Show me!” Susie said grabbing my face and examining it for hints to hussy herself up.
Needless to say, three girls who lived in the suburbs only had a fleeting glimpse of what life as a lady of the night was like. To us, it was more along the lines of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (and trust me, I didn’t look like that). But for teenagers with strict parents, we had to get our “thrills” where we could. And that meant putting on makeup, thinking that our lives were much more dangerous than they were, and doing things that we weren’t supposed to. Like playing with tarot cards, ouija boards and voodoo dolls.
Voodoo dolls were an idea that were popular at school. They were usually used to gain affection with someone you liked – or used to exact revenge on someone that you didn’t. And of course, sometimes the two were related too 
We would spend evenings watching horror movies, reading tarot cards, making voodoo dolls, making prank phone calls and really sort of hoping for some sort of excitement in our uneventful teenage lives.
We dialed one number at random and it rang a few times.
“Hello” the woman at the other end answered.
“Oh hello! Could I speak to Hagrid Flopbottom?” we said our faces contorting at the sheer effort of keeping the laughter out of our voice.
“Yep, hang on a sec” the voice answered and we could hear her yell out “Haaagrid!”
“Oh my god, hang up!” I said and we quickly slammed the phone down. What were the chances that there was someone with a surname that sounded like Flopbottom?
A minute later, the phone rang and we all froze instantly in position. It turned out that Hagrid Flopbottom had caller I.D., a service that had yet to make it to the greater masses and he had called us back. We let the phone ring and ring, too scared to pick it up so eventually Annie’s slightly hard of hearing and short tempered father answered the phone.
“Haggis what bottom?” we heard him say to the caller. “Stop wasting my time you bloody idiots!” he roared. Cracking open the door and creeping down the stairs, we watched him turn the television on and rustle the newspaper. We were safe. And we finally got our little piece of excitement, albeit a very g rated version thereof.
These voodoo cookies reminded me of those fun times and are for my upcoming Halloween party. Suitably slightly creepy, they’re made using a gingerbread man mold and you can decorate them with hearts, broken hearts, bandages or whatever takes your fancy. If you are serving them to kids or adults that tend to scoff food without looking, I would of course advise against using actual pins or toothpicks and you can certainly draw these on using writing icing pens. They’re really quite easy once you have the pens and the best thing is that the more crooked the writing, the more homespun slash voodoo doll looking they are!
So tell me Dear Reader, did you ever make prank calls as a kid and did you get into trouble a lot? And if you could wish for anything now what would it be? Love, happiness, money or revenge? And were your parents strict?
Voodoo Doll Cookies
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
Makes about 16 cookies (depending on size, the cutters I used were very large)
- 170g/6ozs butter, softened
- 280g/10 ozs white caster superfine sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 360g/12ozs all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon finely ground tea leaves (optional)
- You will also need a gingerbread man cutter
To decorate
- Icing pens with various colours and tips-the glitter ones are good for drawing needles
- Red fondant and small red cutter for heart
1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour and tea leaves. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight but take it out ahead of time to let it become more rollable).
2. Preheat oven to 200C/400 F. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/3 inch thick, I prefer these a bit thicker so that they are sturdy. Dipping your cutter in the flour, cut out man shapes. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.
3. Now is the fun bit! Decorate your voodoo doll just as you would want to. Make some mummies, some with snakes crawling up their leg, some with just buttons for eyes or stitches.
P.S. The adorable pin cushions are from a reader Mitzi who sells them on Etsy under the name Couture Confections: http://www.etsy.com/shop/coutureconfections
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72 Comments | Add your own
OMG, Lorraine, these are absolutely adorable! I just love them. Thanks for the inspiration…I am definitely making some of these for Halloween this year!
Sorry, forgot to add that we did indeed make crank calls…well before the day of caller ID! Silly one’s like: is your refrigerator running? Well you’d better catch it before it runs away!
I had the strictest parents growing up! Asian parents normally are
those voodoo doll cookies look amazing! They are incredibly well made 
Is it weird that I find these ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE OMG?
I have to tell you: I laughed so hard! The dolls decoration is hilarious!
Thanks for the ideas.
Love your cookies! They are very cute and not at all scary
Oh lala – these are too cute and very creative, hahahha. I definitely will do this for Halloween, so much fun!
These cookies are so perfect for Halloween, Lorraine! The detail is incredible!
I need to have a Halloween party so I can make these! Too cute for words!!!!
These are SO cute!! Very clever! Definitely made prank calls when I was a kid and played with ouija boards and generally scared ourselves as kids – good times!
You, my dear, are a major worry.
Having said that, these are a work of art!!
Once again, Lorraine, you have outdone yourself. So creative and fun. And the story made me laugh!
I, too, wish you were going to Morocco with me. One year–or we’ll meet here in San Miguel de Allende!
Actually, and at the risk of sounding ancient, I was watching some young women walking down the street in 6″ heels, breasts spilling out & skirts up to their underwear just yesterday and wondering how it is that looking like a prostitute seems to be the look a lot of them are going for these days.
Lovely cookies, by the way.
These are GENIUS!!!! Absolutely love them. You are so very clever and creepy and scary with these amazing Halloween ideas you come up with!
Too cute… Step 1) has tea leaves to be stirred in with the flour, but I can’t find tea leaves listed in the ingredients. opps.. will make them without tea leaves..
HI madbunny-I just used the sugar cookie recipe from the tea bag cookies and you can add in tea leaves or not (although they lend a “reading tea leaves” quality I suppose! All part of the fortune telling/voodoo/ouija
Oh this made me laugh! We did the same thing – too good to do anything really naughty but killing ourselves laughing over prank phone calls or playing a joke on unsuspecting parents. If I could ask for anything now it would be happiness for everyone. Sounds a bit like world peace, but then that would be nice too:) LOVE the cookies xox
These cookies look delicious and deceptively easy to make! I can’t wait to get really creative with the designs.
We did prank calls once at a sleepover – but we caved under pressure and after a few were too nervous to continue. My mum was pretty strict, but naturally I found ways around that….;)
Anyone ever try “light as feather”?
Lovely little numbers!
These are sooo adorable! Love the bandages hehe. I definitely had a strict Asian mother and I was never allowed out to dances or sleepovers but I must admit my friend and I were guilty of a few prank calls to a boy I had a crush on haha. Hahahahh we told him that we were calling about KFC lawsuit against him (no idea where we came up with that.. lol)
These are awesome!!!
Even though these are supposed to be Voodoo doll cookies I think they’re so so so cute
You’re really good at decorating Lorraine!!!
LOL I remember calling my friend’s auntie when we were in High School and because we knew all their details, we said we were from a insurance company and that she has to pay extra fee or something. But she was too diligent very quickly she knew it was a prank and said “I don’t know who you are, or why you know my details but i am NOT stupid” and hung up hahhaa we were 15. My friend said her auntie told her about the prank call and she was shaking because she didn’t know if she’ll find out who did it
These are absolutely awesome! Hysterical! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them! What a creative artistic ability you possess!
ive got a set of gingerbread man cookie cutters with missing limbs! i think it would be perfect for halloween!
These look amazing! They will be perfect for your party.
LOVE your voodoo cookies today!
Scary but enchanting in an ominous way!
Thanks for the walk down memory lane too!
My parents were strict and did make innocent prank calls too!
Ours was Are there any Walls there? When they said no, we said, “So what is holding your house up? Giggled and hung up…oh, the innocent days lol
I’m really not sure what I’d wish for. Is it a sign that I’m getting old when I’d rather like good health forever?
These are so cute (shared them on my FB page this morning).
These cookies are so fun
So eerily cute Lorraine! I have a set of GingerDEAD Men cutters that shows their skeletons that is fun too
My parents were (and still are) very strict, so I didn’t get up too much, and I wasn’t allowed even make up until I was 16. Lucky I’m making up for lost time now!
Those are so cute, Lorraine. I love how they’re all so individual. I was able to make prank calls back in the day when caller ID hadn’t yet been invented! xx
Voodoo dolls freak me out so much I would never play with one but these cookies are so fabulous I definitely would make/eat them. I vaguely remember making prank calls as a kid. Probably to some boy I liked.
You are a bad girl…!!!
Oh my, I now remember, not only the phone, we also used to ring bells (front doors) in the way from school to home: we walked for some blocks with friend who lived near me.
Oooh, how cool are these! I love the heart-ones, though.
Lorraine, your voodoo doll cookies look so sad and touching, yet beautiful and artistic at the same time! I am by the beach in Thailand and every morning at the resort they bring for breakfast specially to me a delicious fried rice, looking just like the one your mother does, however my fried rice here is a vegan version of it, just rice and vegetables… See you at the Halloween party!
Lorraine, your Voodoo doll cookies look so sad and touching, yet cute and artistic at the same time!
I am in Thailand by the beach and every morning for breakfast here at the resort they bring me a delicious fried rice, looking just like the one your mother does, however my fried rice here is a vegan version of it, just rice and vegetables… Looking forward to your Halloween party..!
I am so doing these with my kids, what a fun project! My parents weren’t strict, but we knew where the line was and usually tried not to cross it! I did a few crank calls too, silly ones.
these voodoo doll cookies are so cute!what a great idea for halloween!
Here they are! Halloween post! I’ve been waiting for this and I think I started to follow you right before Halloween season last year. I was so impressed by your work last year and I couldn’t wait to see your creation this year. I won’t be able to eat these because they are so in details and I see your hard work! LOVE LOVE LOVE your work (as always)!
Freaky and loving it Halloween baking queen!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
These look awesome Lorraine!
How cute are these cookies! I never attempt making sugar cookies but I surely want to try your recipe – it sounds absolutely fantastic.
Love these cookies! I was pretty behaved and just did the normal teenage stuff, until I hit my sixteen and then I was a naughty girl
But I must have got it all out of my system because I’m an angel now.. Haha!
Cute cookies! Where did you get your moulds from? I only have stars and hearts, which probably wouldn’t have the same effect…
I never made or played with voodoo dolls, but had great hours of fun making prank calls with family friends when we went on camping trips.
We’d call up mutual friends with our caller ID turned off so they couldn’t see who was calling, and chortle and snort creepily into the phone until they got scared and hung up, or would get really angry
Those cookies are so cute! I just got a lot of inspiration from your pictures! Can’t wait to start baking my own
I am also glad to see you still have the felt french desserts I made for you! (I think there was also an eclair, macaron, and mini ispahan)I no longer make felt desserts but I am still a great fan of your blog! 
mitzi
Hi Mitzi! Absolutely, I still have them-they’re so adorable! Yep an eclair, macaron and a mini ispahan. Thank you!
woohoo must be almost time for a halloween party post from you! These cookies are adorable!
Love these very impressive! My parents (especially my father) were incredibly strict so my siblings and I were never in trouble. If I could wish for anything it would be for all my loved ones to always have good health.
I have been waiting to see what you were going to come up with for Halloween this year and you didn’t disappoint Lorraine. These are too cute and probably not as gruesome as last years but definitely great! I especially love the bandaged Voodoo doll and for someone that doesn’t sew, I can see some very neat ‘stitching’
Being Italian, my parents were strict to the MAX, no such thing as going out anywhere unless my older brother James was kind enough to have me tag along. I was pretty desperate and offered to cook for him and his mates just so he would take me to the beach, I suppose all that training in the kitchen
paid off long term.
Can I wish for the first three, not too bothered with revenge.
Halloween is my favourite time on your blog! I can’t wait to see what you create this year. You are such a genius. The little spirally eyes are so cute hehe
8170g butter
?
that is so adorable.
These cookies are perfect!!
I never did the prank calls but my friends did. “Is your washer running?” “yes” “well, go catch it.” hang up. There was definitely no caller-ID back then.
I love the Mummy cookies best but the Zombie ones are very cute and colourful too. It was your halloween posts which caught my eye when I first started reading blogs so if this is a taste of what’s to come, I’m excited! I’m afraid I was too good to do any pranking! : )
Whoa those are some scary little cookies! They’d be a fun Halloween project.
These are such creative cookies!! Perfect for Halloween! Thank goodness there was no caller ID when I was in junior high making prank calls with my just as immature friends!
Crank calls was about as crazy as we got:) I was not a wild child. My parents were not strict with me as the youngest of four, due to the fact that my older sisters never caused any problems, and they paved the way:) These cookies are so well done and so “cute”! Love the stitches:)
This is a fab idea! Spooky but yummy
OMG Lorraine! This is another epic post…even if it’s not for Halloween I will be making them because they are just too dang cute.
How fun! They look great. You must have a lot of patience!
I was too chicken for prank calls
These cookies are spooky but I want to make them!!
so cute, in a twisted kind of way.
Dang cute for Halloween, Lorraine! Thanks for sharing
I love the dolls! My parents were very strict but we managed to be naughty nonetheless
Haha, love it. We are so making these for Halloween. Yes, my bestie and I used to make prank calls. We always cracked up laughing, so we would record crank funny sentences onto cassettes and press play so we could fall about laughing … and then press relevant responses. Usually by then we could collect ourselves and respond as well. Our most fave thing was to crank call radio DJs. We never won anything cool as we were always too scared to own up to our own handywork …
Oh wow! Those are too cute for words! I wanna try making them for Halloween!
these are lots of fun – E said they look very Tim Burton when I showed him. I laughed at your story – reminded me of friends who would ring people and say is your fridge running and then say well you had better chase it! (not me honestly)
Lorraine, you are a very naughty girl. Haaaa. Yes, we used to make prank calls, too. Remember that movie where the girls said “I know what you did?” I think we did that a few times! Or couse, before ID caller.
The Voodoo cookies are FAaAAb! I loooove. Xx
OMG. These are so cute and perfect for Halloween. I will have to make some for my doll’s meeting (not voo doo dolls… tho).
I love Halloween time at NQN! These are so cute! You know, in a cute creepy kind of way. I miss the days of prank calls. Kids today don’t know what they’re missing!
haha that story is hilarious! gosh i miss high school days! your voodoo doll cookies look adorable
Hi NQN,
I love the look of these. I made the cookies last night, my dough was very sticky and wet. I found I needed to add a LOT more flour into them. I followed the recipe to the T.
Once they were baked they tasted AMAZING! Such a beautiful light yummy flavour.
XX
OMG These are amazing. Lorraine, your attention to detail is so incredible. Mind blowing, even! Well done. I think these would make a great gift for a friend of mine who just kicked her husband out after dealing with his two-year mid-life crisis episode, that culminated in him telling her that he didn’t love her anymore and that he was in love with someone else. So these cookies can also serve another purpose in addition to Halloween.
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