Draw a skeleton on a big sheet of parchment paper, making it as small or as large as you like. Please see below for the template of the skeleton that I made.

Roll the cookie dough out on a well-floured surface until it is 1/8-inch thick. Cut out each bone from the skeleton stencil, and use them as stencils to cut out bone-shaped cookies. Tip: Because of the variety of shapes of cookies, make sure that your cookie dough is still cool to the dough. It will make handling the dough and transferring it to baking sheets much easier.

Arrange the cookies on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. For pieces like the skull, ribs, pelvis and spine, bunch some aluminum foil up underneath them to give them a 3D shape. Bake the cookies in the oven at 350F for 10-15 minutes, until the edges are just starting to brown. Allow the cookies to fully cool.

Make the royal icing: Place the confectioner’s sugar, meringue powder and water in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 7 minutes, until the icing remains on the surface for a few seconds when drizzled.

Place the icing in a piping bag fitted with a round tip and pipe a white border around all of the cookies. Add about 1 tbsp water to the icing to make it more runny. Fill in the cookies with this thinner icing. Allow the icing to fully harden, about 1 hour.

Arrange the skeleton onto a surface of your choice. Dampen a clean paintbrush with water and dip it into some cocoa powder. Contour the bones to give them depth and make them look slightly aged.