How to Make a Paper Fortune Cookie -Use it as a Party Favor!

This origami fortune cookie has no gluten, no sugar, no carbs, no calories!! Add a couple of folds to this origami heart and you will end up with a charming paper cookie that can be used as a party favor.

Origami fortune cookies and fortune hearts go well together. Use the fortune cookie to insert a message and attach the heart to a teabag. You are ready for a tea party!

This is a perfect example of how small transformations applied to an existing origami model can lead to the creation of a new model. In this case, a heart was transformed into a fortune cookie. When folding paper we need to keep our eyes open to creative ideas and new possibilities.

You can fold this paper fortune cookie from the following video tutorial. No glue or scissors are necessary.

Tips and suggestions for making the origami Fortune Cookie

In the video, the cookie is demonstrated using computer paper
Any thin and crisp paper is ideal to use for these cookies. Copy paper, kami, tant papers can all be used for this figure.
It is ideal to use paper of the same color on both sides.
Use a solid-color piece of paper. An ideal paper size (real size cookie) is about 4.5 x 4.5 inches or 11 x 11 cm.

Fortune Cookie History: A Japanese-American Creation

Although we associate fortune cookies with Chinese food, they are an American invention.

The true inventor of fortune cookies remains a mystery, with several Japanese immigrants in early 1900s California claiming credit for the creation. The most commonly accepted story attributes them to Makoto Hagiwara, who allegedly created them in 1914 at San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden, though David Jung (1918, Los Angeles), Seiichi Kito (1903, Los Angeles), and Suyeichi Okamura (1906, San Francisco) also have compelling claims.

What’s certain is that these iconic treats were invented by Japanese immigrants in California—not Chinese immigrants as commonly believed.

They became widely popular only after Edward Louie invented the fortune cookie machine in the late 1960s, enabling mass production of this uniquely American creation.