Make star-shaped cookies, you can use any recipe you like or try my simple sugar cookies. Combine the icing/glaze ingredients (icing sugar, vanilla, milk) using a whisk. I did this in three small bowls so that each of my kids could have a bowl of icing
Watch the video tutorial above to see how we did the icing. Use toothpicks to dip small amounts of food colouring into the icing, use a toothpick to create swirl patterns. Once it is swirly enough, take a cookie and dip it into the icing, leave on a rack to harden
While the icing is still soft add the edible silver balls or star sprinkles, 9 for each cookie representing the stars of Matariki
Repeat until all the cookies are iced, you can keep adding small amounts of food colouring and swirling the icing to create new patterns
Video
Notes
Tips
Only use a little food colouring at a time, too much and the icing will just appear very dark and you won't see the swirling colours, you will also end up with children with very colourful tongues and teeth when they eat them!
For a really high gloss glaze finish, you can also add 1 Tablespoon of light corn syrup or honey, I don't tend to do this when just making the cookies at home. And haven't for the images in this post, but you may get a better finish if you do.
The trick with galaxy cookies is getting the consistency of the glaze correct, the glaze should be thick enough that it doesn't all run off the cookie, but loose enough that you can easily dip the cookie into the glaze. Test one cookie, see how the glaze looks on the cookie after a couple of minutes, if it's all run off the cookie it's too thin.. add a tablespoon of icing sugar, if it's not spread to an even smooth finish then it's too thick... add a little more milk.
Ingredient Substitutions
Cookies: You do not need to use my sugar cookie recipe, you can use any sugar cookie recipe that you want that will meet your needs.
Milk: The milk can actually be substituted for water if needed.