It’s official: K-Pop: Demon Hunters has popped off, and for good reason! My K-Pop: Demon Hunters inspired sugar cookies are so easy to make and are the perfect sweet treat for a K-Pop: Demon Hunters movie night or themed birthday party. Or, you know, just as a fun treat to make for any fan of the film. Get those vocal chords nice and warm, and let’s bake.
Contents
The Bake
Whilst I’m the kind of person that likes to live in the moment and make decisions based on feeling, I do actually have a base content schedule for Flavour of the Film.
I have so many ideas and it can be hard to keep them all organised, particularly when I’m planning my recipes and the like.
With that being said, there are times when I do just feel inspired by a film or TV show so much that I shift my schedule to make room. This is one of those times.
Sure, K-Pop: Demon Hunters has taken off online and it’s trending and all that internet stuff.
Or so I’m told, that is. I’m not big on trends and social media etc., I have to say. Each to their own, though.
Aside from the fact that this film has got a lot of the internet community in a frenzy, K-Pop: Demon Hunters is genuinely very good. The animation alone is a wonder, not to mention the characterisation elements and the music.
K-Pop: Demon Hunters deals with themes of self-acceptance, self-love, and vulnerability adding to our strength rather than taking away from it. Also, why snacking is crucial.
I’m absolutely here for it, especially when it’s packaged in such a gorgeous animation style.
There is so much about it to like about K-Pop: Demon Hunters, and I felt really inspired by the general message of the story, as well as the varying styles used for the film to visually pack a punch.
This inspiration led to the creation of my super cute K-Pop: Demon Hunters decorated sugar cookies.
When I say that they are easy to make, I mean it! Netflix categorises this film under the kids demographic (even though viewers of all ages are enjoying it), so my cookie recipe is kid-friendly.
The base is the same as my Good Omens sugar cookies recipe and my Christmas cookies inspired by The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. These cookies don’t spread or lose their shape in the oven, which is always a win.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
The only difference here is the shaping and the decoration, naturally.
The base of the cookies is also customisable flavour wise to make them more personal to you, friends.
My K-Pop: Demon Hunters sugar cookies are shaped and decorated to represent some of the important aspects of the film’s story:
The HUNTRX lightstick; demon patterns, the bracelet (no spoilers here – if you know, you know), and what I’d argue is the song of the movie: HUNTRX’s “Golden”.
These aspects of the story are all represented in cookie form! Cool, right?
When it came to the decoration, I wanted to make sure that I opted for something that anyone can do.
Sure, intricately detailed sugar cookies are beautiful to look at, but not everyone finds it as easy to do. With that in mind, I opted to do minimal decoration with buttercream rather than royal icing.
Buttercream is far more forgiving when decorating cookies. You can gently scrape it off and redo your designs if needed, which takes away the pressure of making them perfect.
Pretty cookies don’t need to be covered in icing – just a wee bit will do. In this case, less is more definitely applies.
Top Tips
- To customise the flavour of your sugar cookies, you can add zest of a citrus fruit like lemon and/or lime, or swap out the vanilla extract for a different extract of your choice.
- To create the lightstick shape, I cut out a paper template and cut around that in the cookie dough. This is the easiest way to do this, unless you can find a cookie cutter that is really close to the shape of the lightstick, of course.
- These cookies don’t spread in the oven whether you chill beforehand or not. I like to chill them in the fridge once shaped, just while my oven is coming up to temperature, but that’s optional.
- As mentioned above, the decoration for these cookies is buttercream because it’s easier to work with and more forgiving. You can swap it out for royal icing if you wish, but I’d recommend sticking with the buttercream for a more kid-friendly/easier time decorating these cookies!
- As we’re piping the buttercream in patterns, you want to make it a little looser than the buttercream you use to fill a biscuit or cover a cake with. To do this, add a very small splash of water when you’re beating the butter and sugar together.
- My recipe makes more than enough buttercream, so you can relax knowing that if you need to redo a design, you have enough. If you’re confident in your piping skills, beat together 75g unsalted butter and 150g icing sugar instead.
- I tried to keep the patterns (heh) on my K-Pop: Demon Hunters sugar cookies easy to do. The bracelet pattern is the most complicated out of all of them, so if you or little ones are finding it less fun to do, simply pipe a cute flower using the same colours (see the example in the images). The bracelet is in the shape of a flower, so it still hits the brief.
- The white and yellow icing pens called for in the recipe are used for the writing elements on the sugar cookies. They can be found in your local supermarket or online.
K-Pop: Demon Hunters is a real cracker of an animated movie. The inspiration I felt watching it manifested into this sugar cookie recipe, providing a way to easily whip up kid-friendly, absolutely delicious numnums. Soft, buttery K-Pop goodness. They make the perfect sweet treat for a K-Pop: Demon Hunters watch party, themed birthday party, or they can even be made as a gift for a fan. Enjoy!
Happy baking, happy eating!
The Recipe
Ingredients
K-Pop: Demon Hunters sugar cookies:
- 115g [4 oz] unsalted butter
- 100g [½ cup] golden caster sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 190g [1 cup + 3 tbsp] plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of sea salt
Decoration:
- 100g [3.5 oz] unsalted butter room temperature or slightly softened
- 200g [1¼ cups + 2 tbsp] icing [confectioners] sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Edible gold glitter or lustre dust
- Purple food colouring liquid or gel
- Blue food colouring liquid or gel
- Pink food colouring liquid or gel
- White writing icing pen
- Yellow writing icing pen
Makes: 22+
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Chilling time: 10 minutes (optional)
Baking time: 8 – 10 minutes
Decorating time: 40 minutes
Method:
K-Pop Demon Hunters sugar cookies:
- Prepare two baking trays by lining them with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and the vanilla and beat in well.
- Sift in the flour and baking powder. Add the salt and beat in until a dough has formed.
- If the mix seems more soft than dough-like, add more flour gradually, 1 tbsp at a time. Do this until a firmer dough has formed.
- Tip out onto a clean and floured surface and bring together into a disc. Flour a rolling pin and use this to roll the dough out until around ½ cm in thickness.
- Cut out 22 biscuits (or more) using a standard sized circular cookie cutter, a heart shaped cookie cutter, and a sharp knife or culinary grade scalpel with a paper template for the lightstick shape. You will need to bring the dough together and roll back out again a couple of times to do this.
- Place the cookies on the trays, leaving a little space in between each one. Place the trays in the fridge for now (optional).
Baking:
- Preheat your oven to 180°C [350°F] or 160°C fan.
- Once up to temperature, place your trays on the middle shelves and bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until golden. They will continue to bake on the tray so don’t be tempted to bake for longer!
- Once baked, leave to cool on the trays completely.
- While your cookies are cooling, begin preparing your buttercream.
Decoration:
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and a little splash of water until smooth.
- Divide the buttercream into three smaller bowls, leaving an equal amount in the mixing bowl, and add a few drops of each food colouring to each one. Mix in until each one is a smooth colour.
- Once your cookies are completely cool, start decorating.
- Snip the very ends off four piping bags to create a pinpoint hole for each bag. Spoon in one colour buttercream per bag. Set aside for now.
- Use the white writing icing pen to write the “H” in the centre of each lightstick shaped cookie. Use the yellow writing icing pen to write “golden” on the heart shaped cookies.
- Pipe the buttercream in the varying patterns on each biscuit to finish your K-Pop: Demon Hunters sugar cookies.
- Serve immediately or leave to dry for at least 1 hour before placing in an airtight container.
These K-Pop: Demon Hunter inspired sugar cookies are melt-in-the-mouth K-Pop themed goodness. They are a kid-friendly treat to make, so long as guiding hands are nearby if help is needed and to take over when the oven comes into play. These sugar cookies will last for 4+ days in an airtight container, but be mindful that they are likely to soften over time. Enjoy!
The Film
If you’ve read my about page or been a regular reader for a while, you’ll likely know that I’m a fan of South Korean pop culture.
I wrote my dissertation on the rise of South Korean dramas in the West, and I recently put together a K-Drama recommendations list. The latter will be added to over time, as high quality K-Dramas keep being released in such a rapid manner!
K-Pop: Demon Hunters kind of caught me off guard.
I’m a big fan of animated movies, but the overall concept had me a little unsure at first. Also, Netflix determining the film to be a kids movie above all else was a strange move, in my opinion.
Sure, make it clear that it’s family friendly, but don’t box the film in such a way that could put off adult viewers. Particularly fans of the genre or the general context that the film focuses on.
Maybe it’s just me, but when studios categorise their films as kids films, even when there is *so much more* to them, the very act of categorising itself almost becomes a tool to reduce what the film is about. Like it shouldn’t be taken seriously.
K-Pop: Demon Hunters is yet another recent example of why animated movies are for all ages, not just kids.
Other examples include Blue Eye Samurai (2023 – ), endless different anime shows, The Wild Robot (2024), anything by Aardman, League of Legends: Arcane (2021 – 2024), and Flow (2024). Just off the top of my head.
What can I say? I’m passionate about animation.
Back to the matter at hand.
K-Pop: Demon Hunters follows the story of an internationally acclaimed K-Pop girl group who, when they aren’t performing to adoring fans around the world, fight to keep the world safe from demons.
Following generations of female trios before them, Rumi, Mira, and Zoey use their immense fighting skills and melodic singing voices to banish demons who breach into the human world.
They finally get close to securing the magical barrier between the human world and the demon world for good, when things start to unravel.
K-Pop: Demon Hunters was directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Applehans. They also wrote the screenplay for the film, along with Danya Jimenez, Hannah McMechan, Bo Yeon Kim, and Erika Lippoldt.
As expected with a film this visually stunning, the art department is substantial. They are all wizards in my opinion, with some serious talent! Massive admiration for each artist that worked on this movie.
Acting talent lending their voices to help bring these characters to life included Arden Cho (any Teen Wolf fans here?), May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Ahn Hyo-seop, Yunjin Kim, Ken Jeong, Lee Byung-hun, Daniel Dae Kim, and more.
Naturally, actual K-Pop idols provided their singing voices to make the characters even more authentic. Namely, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, and REI AMI, as well as members of K-Pop sensation TWICE.
Everything about K-Pop: Demon Hunters is great. The attention to detail is next level in this movie.
Example? Director Maggie Kang revealed that they specifically animated the characters’ mouth shapes to resemble a Korean person speaking Korean, even though the characters are speaking English.
Next. Level.
Recipe Card
K-Pop: Demon Hunters Decorated Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
KPOP: Demon Hunters sugar cookies:
- 115 g [4 oz] unsalted butter
- 100 g [½ cup] golden caster sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 190 g [1 cup + 3 tbsp] plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of sea salt
Decoration:
- 100 g [3.5 oz] unsalted butter room temperature or slightly softened
- 200 g [1¼ cups + 2 tbsp] icing [confectioners] sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Edible gold glitter or lustre dust
- Purple food colouring liquid or gel
- Blue food colouring liquid or gel
- Pink food colouring liquid or gel
- White writing icing pen
- Yellow writing icing pen
Instructions
KPOP Demon Hunters sugar cookies:
- Prepare two baking trays by lining them with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and the vanilla and beat in well.
- Sift in the flour and baking powder. Add the salt and beat in until a dough has formed.
- If the mix seems more soft than dough-like, add more flour gradually, 1 tbsp at a time. Do this until a firmer dough has formed.
- Tip out onto a clean and floured surface and bring together into a disc. Flour a rolling pin and use this to roll the dough out until around ½ cm in thickness.
- Cut out 22 biscuits (or more) using a standard sized circular cookie cutter, a heart shaped cookie cutter, and a sharp knife or culinary grade scalpel with a paper template for the lightstick shape. You will need to bring the dough together and roll back out again a couple of times to do this.
- Place the cookies on the trays, leaving a little space in between each one. Place the trays in the fridge for now (optional).
Baking:
- Preheat your oven to 180°C [350°F] or 160°C fan.
- Once up to temperature, place your trays on the middle shelves and bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until golden. They will continue to bake on the tray so don’t be tempted to bake for longer!
- Once baked, leave to cool on the trays completely.
- While your cookies are cooling, begin preparing your buttercream.
Decoration:
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and a little splash of water until smooth.
- Divide the buttercream into three smaller bowls, leaving an equal amount in the mixing bowl, and add a few drops of each food colouring to each one. Mix in until each one is a smooth colour.
- Once your cookies are completely cool, start decorating.
- Snip the very ends off four piping bags to create a pinpoint hole for each bag. Spoon in one colour buttercream per bag. Set aside for now.
- Use the white writing icing pen to write the “H” in the centre of each lightstick shaped cookie. Use the yellow writing icing pen to write “golden” on the heart shaped cookies.
- Pipe the buttercream in the varying patterns on each biscuit to finish your K-Pop: Demon Hunters sugar cookies.
- Serve immediately or leave to dry for at least 1 hour before placing in an airtight container.
Notes
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