Follow the Ruels

Watercolor Seaside Cookies

I have been dying to make some cookies that combined both watercolor and metallic details. Various ideas floated around in my head. It wasn’t until I was organizing my cookie cutters and came across these long-lost seashell and starfish cookie cutters that I had never used that it hit me! All at once I had the idea to make these beautiful watercolor seaside cookies. 

But the set didn’t seem complete without a mermaid tail. Sadly, I didn’t have my own mermaid tail cookie cutter and was too impatient to order one. So I improvised! I printed out a mermaid tail shape and cut the dough around it.

With my three seaside shapes cut and baked, I was all set to make these watercolor cookies. I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out!

While painting on metallic details is not the most efficient process, the combination of the watercolor and metallic may be my new favorite cookie decoration. What do you think?

Tool and Recipes

Recipes:

  • Sugar Cookie Recipe
  • Royal Icing Recipe

Tools: 

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How to Make Them

What makes these cookies a little bit different than my usual cookies is that I dip them into the icing instead of piping them. I find that it’s a little bit easier to dip the cookies. And since you just need a plain, flat surface to paint on, it doesn’t matter how the icing gets there!

Use thin down icing until its slightly thinner than flood consistency. It should return to a flat surface within 10 seconds after “scraping” the surface. I find that this consistency of icing creates a nice even surface that covers the entire cookie. 

Let the icing dry completely (about 4 hours) before beginning to paint. 

Painting these cookies is the most fun and relaxing part. I could just do that for hours!

I can’t say the same for the piping. While I love the metallic accents, painting on the metallic paint can be a bit tiresome after a while. So maybe enlist a friend or break it up into batches if you are making lots of cookies!

All in all, I am totally enamored with these cookies. I can’t wait to put the watercolor-metallic combination to work again in another fun cookie set!

 

Preppy Onesie Baby Shower Cookies

This past weekend I was back in my hometown of San Diego for not one but two baby showers! One was for my oldest friend and the other was for ME! 

For my first baby shower, I couldn’t help but make cookies to take with me all the way to California. It definitely helped that the baby shower invitations were just so dang cute, it gave me lots of inspiration.

Recipes and Supplies

To make these cookies yourself, you will need:

Both will be enough to make about 18 cookies (depending on size). If you plan on making any more, I would multiply the recipe accordingly. 

You will also need:

For the icing, I recommend splitting the blue and the white icings into piping consistency and flood consistency. To ensure they are the same color, tint a large bowl of icing before thinning it down. Then thin it down to your desired piping consistency (it should fall off a spoon, but still hold a little bit of a peak) and portion part of the icing into a piping bag. Then thin the rest of the icing down to flood consistency (it falls off the spoon and settles back into the icing within 10-15 seconds) and spoon into a separate bag. 

I use the piping consistency to outline all the cookies and to add details. The flood consistency is used to fill the entire cookie.

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How to Make Them

I just thought they were so adorable! Perfect for a little baby boy, don’t you think!?

Watercolor Ice Cream Cookies

Even though it seems like Summer is winding down, it is certainly heating up around these parts (literally). We are pushing triple digits here in Georgia, which I know most of the rest of the country is all too familiar with. 

I’m looking at you, Texas. 

While actual ice cream would be just as good (if not better for these scorching Summer temps), I thought it would be fun to make some ice cream inspired cookies to get us through these dog-days of Summer. 

Recipes and Supplies

Of course, you will need some sugar cookies cut out into your favorite ice cream shapes. You could use my basic sugar cookie recipe, but I think one of my Summer sugar cookie recipes would be even better (shameless plug). 

You will also want to make a batch of royal icing thinned down to flood consistency icing. 

Since these are painted cookies, you will also need some gel food coloring in your favorite ice cream colors, paint brushes, and a little clear alcohol.

To make the edible watercolors, add one or two drops of food coloring to a plate or paint pallet, then add in a couple drops of alcohol. Stir the two together with your paintbrush until you have a nice watercolor paint. 

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How to Make Them

Start by outlining and filling each cookie with white icing, letting the icing dry completely before painting. 

Then start painting!

These turned out so much cuter than I could have hoped! I think I found a new favorite cookie to paint!

What do you think?

Gender Reveal Cookies

Gender reveals are all the rage these days. From balloons to confetti to fireworks, everyone seems to have a different take on this gender reveal trend. 

Obviously, my favorite gender reveal ideas are those involving food! So even though we aren’t having a formal gender reveal I thought it would be fun to create some sweet treats to spread the fun news!

And, if I am being honest, I have been thinking up fun baking-related gender reveal ideas long before I was ever pregnant!

So first on the schedule are these gender reveal cookies! They can be as simple or as elaborate as you’d like because it’s what’s on the inside that counts!

Recipes and Supplies

To make these cookies you will need:

  • At least 1 batch of my favorite sugar cookie recipe (will make 2 gender reveal cookies and 10-12 additional cookies depending on size and thickness)
  • 1 batch of royal icing to cover all the cookies
  • A egg wash (1 egg + 1 tsp water)

You will also need:

How to Make Them

Start by making the sugar cookie dough. Chill the dough so that it’s a bit firm, then roll out as usual. Cut the dough to the desired shape and immediately transfer to a baking sheet or plate and place back in the fridge to chill.

Each of the gender reveal cookies will actually be comprised of three layers of dough. Two will be baked together, the other will be baked separately and “glued” on top with icing. 

It is important that these pieces stay chilled so that their shape isn’t distorted. Because the pieces all need to match together in the end, you want them all to be the same shape and size. 

“Glue” one piece of rolled out cookie dough onto the other by brushing a bit of egg wash around the edges. 

Place another piece of dough on top of the other, then cut out a hole to fill with sprinkles later. 

Alternately, you can cut out a hole in the top layer of dough before placing it on top of the bottom layer. Just be careful not to distort the top layer when moving it. 

Bake the double layer cookies separately than the single layer because they will take a bit longer to bake. 

Also, because its a thicker cookie, it may expand more than your single top layer. 

Don’t fret!!

Use your top layer as a guide and cut around the thick bottom layer while the cookie is still hot from the oven. Polish any rough spots with a zester to get them to look like a perfect match.

Now it’s time to fill the cookies with sprinkles!! Obviously, you will need to know what color to fill first, then pour in enough sprinkles to fill the cavity. 

Add some stiff or piping consistency royal icing around the edges and then place your top cookie right on top. Press the cookie down firmly to make sure it’s nice and secure!

You can immediately start to decorate the cookies once the top layer is in place. 

For these cookies, I kept it pretty simple. I outlined the onsie with white icing, then flooded it with flood consistency icing. 

I immediately went in with blue and pink flood consistency icing to add some dots and stripes. 

And there you have it! Super fun and cute gender reveal cookies!

I recommend making at least 2 so that both parents can open them at the same time. 

You can even make these for twins!

I had so much fun making these, but of course, I’m not giving our gender away just yet! I have a couple more fun reveals planned this week so you will have to wait and see!

 

World Cup Sugar Cookies

By the time this is posted, one team has already been eliminated from the tournament. 

I blame my poor time management on my husband (of course) who told me that the first game of the semifinals was on Wednesday, not Tuesday. 

(Let’s not focus on the fact that there are plenty of other, more credible, sources of World Cup scheduling information that are easy to come by.)

Regardless, I have been excited to make these cookies since the World Cup started. We are avid soccer football fans in this household, so we have watched just about every weekend game, and some of the weekday games. 

While our team (zie Germans) didn’t get very far this year, we have enjoyed watching some old and new favorites duke it out on the pitch. It’s also been fun for me to sit back and relentlessly mock the players who seem to get hurt so easily (<cough>Neymar). 

But I better not waste any more time or else another team will have been eliminated by the time I get around to showing you how I made these fun World Cup sugar cookies. 

Supplies and Recipes

For these cookies, you will need:

  • Cookies cut into circles, jerseys/shirts, and a speech bubble.
  • Royal icing in black (both piping and flood), white, red, blue (light and dark), and yellow
  • A print out image of a soccer ball approximately the same size as your cookie
  • Plain white tissue paper
  • Food marker
  • Piping bags or zip-top bags
  • Toothpick or scribe tool

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How to Make Them

Oddly enough, the soccer balls were the hardest of the cookies to make. Something about the combination of pentagons and hexagons makes it really hard to draw freehand. 

Fortunately, I have a trick to getting the perfectly patterned soccer ball: tracing!

You can see in the video that I use a piece of tissue paper to trace over the image with a food marker. Then I trace the tracing (follow me?) onto the cookie through the tissue. 

I have better pictures to demonstrate the technique here. 

Other than the soccer balls, the rest of the cookies were pretty straightforward. The jerseys can be as simple or as detailed as you’d like. You can see I added some additional details to the emblems, but that certainly isn’t necessary. 

So, who do you think is going to win the whole thing? I don’t really want to jinx anything, but I think it will be one of these four teams.

 

Surprise Announcement Cookies

EEEEEEKKKKK!!

I have been eagerly awaiting this post for months! It has been so hard to keep this secret, but I think it’s finally time…

And in true form, I figured the best way to do it would be in cookie form. 

So….

…there you have it!

We are pregnant! 

Was that the surprise you were expecting? Maybe not. But for those of you who were wondering why I have been a little absent from the blog and Instagram over the past couple months, or why I stopped posting about my half marathon training…you have your answer.

Okay, so where should I begin?

How about with the pregnancy test? We found out we were pregnant on Master’s Sunday, which is perfect for my golfer husband. He will never forget the day he found out he would become a dad. 

He knew I was going to take a pregnancy test, so when I returned with a blank stare on my face he asked “are you pregnant” and I responded with “maybe?”. 

Even though I was the one that thought I was mentally prepared to become pregnant, he was the one that seemed the most excited. He thought it was great news, whereas I was treating it like a nasty rumor I was trying not to believe. In fact, I didn’t really believe it until it was confirmed by the doctor.

The first couple of weeks went by with no issues and I thought I was going to have a super easy pregnancy. By week 6 or 7, I started feeling horrible. Just so tired and nauseated almost all the time. 

Billy knew I wasn’t feeling well when I would just stay in bed until after he left for work. Normally, I am up out of bed before him to get my day started. Some days I would just sit in bed and eat crackers until 9 am. 

Also, sweet foods sounded disgusting to me! (Hense why I barely posted anything between the end of April and mid-May.) 

Actually, anything that wasn’t super bland and beige sounded pretty horrible to me. 

By week 10 I started feeling a bit better. Still a bit low energy but the nausea had mostly dissipated. Week 10 also happened to coincide with Mother’s Day, which was perfect because I finally started to feel confident that we could tell people. So for Mother’s Day we told my mom, who was so excited. She has been bugging me for grandchildren since we got married, so “Happy Mother’s Day, mom!” You got your wish. 

Our trip to California was soon after, which is when we told my dad and stepmom. 

By the time we left for Italy, I was feeling pretty much back to normal. Thank you second trimester!

I felt really good during most of our trip and only had a couple bouts where I clearly overdid it the day before. I mean, we were averaging 20k steps a day. This coming off of 3 weeks where I barely got 5k a day!

But Italy isn’t a bad place to be for a pregnant lady who craves carbs! I ate all of the pasta and pizza I could get my hands on. I only had to be a little careful around certain cheeses and meats. And wine…dang baby!

Now I am about 16 weeks along. The baby is the size of an avocado if you are curious. 

That means that the baby is due in early December. Or whenever it decides to make its debut. If it’s anything like its parents, then it will be stubborn and come whenever the heck it wants. 

So that’s it! Were you surprised?

Be prepared for some more baby related baking posts in the near future. Like a gender reveal of some kind or another. What would you like to see, a cake, cookies, cupcakes? Something completely different? 

In the meantime, feel free to send me any of your favorite baby products. I am in the middle of setting up a registry and it’s a bit overwhelming. So any advice is welcome!

 

 

Donut Cookies

Who doesn’t like donuts? 

Who doesn’t like cookies?

Then I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t like these adorable donut cookies, which are perfect for National Donut day! They are just so cute and were so easy to make!

Supplies and Recipes

For these cookies, you will need:

  • Cookies shaped like donuts, which I cut out using a large circle cutter and a small circle cutter.
  • Royal icing thinned to flood consistency in light brown, dark brown, pink, and white
  • Piping bags or zip-top bags
  • Sprinkles or jimmies
  • Toothpick or scribe tool

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How to Make Them

Outline the cookie with light brown flood consistency icing. Let the outline dry for about 1 minute. 

Fill in the entire outline with flood consistency icing. Use a scribe tool or toothpick to pop any bubbles. Then let crust over for at least 10 minutes, if not longer.

Outline the frosting in pink, dark brown, or white (or any other color) flood consistency royal icing. Let the outline dry for about a minute. 

Fill the outline with flood consistency icing.

Immediately sprinkle on sprinkles.

Now if you can’t decide between a donut and a cookie, you don’t have have to choose!

They are perfect with a cup of coffee!

The Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal raisin cookies are like the red-headed stepchild to the chocolate chip cookie. Probably because of the raisins. I think the raisins give them a bad rap. But that’s a little unfair because oatmeal raisin cookies are delicious. And if you don’t like the raisins, just switch them for something a bit more palatable. Like chocolate chips. 

I particularly like oatmeal raisin cookies because I can pretend like I am eating something healthy. Between the oatmeal and the raisins, it’s practically a health food. 

Okay, that’s a stretch, but they are delicious!

How to Make Them

Unlike some of my other recipes, there is no special or secret ingredient that makes this recipe stand out. It’s a pretty basic recipe. Honestly, sometimes that tried and true recipes are tried and true for a reason. Just keep it simple. 

First, cream together the butter, sugars, and molasses. Then mix in the eggs and vanilla. 

If you are a perfectionist, mix together all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add them to the butter and egg mixture. If you are not a perfectionist, like me, just all the dry ingredients into the same bowl and mix them in. 

Then fold in the raisins, or any other mixin you may want. 

I highly recommend refrigerating the dough for at least 30 minutes before forming into balls and placing on a baking sheet. Alternately, you can form the dough into balls and freeze or refrigerate for 15 minutes before baking. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.

Let them cool for at least 5 minutes, then dig in and enjoy!!

Supplies and Recipe

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Watercolor Butterfly Cookies

Who doesn’t love a pretty little butterfly? Or better yet, butterfly cookie! 

I made these watercolor butterfly cookies for a couple of my best friends for Mother’s Day. I love any excuse to send them, their husbands, and their kiddos cookies. And what better way to say “you’re a totally awesome mom!” than with cookies!

Of course, I didn’t share these before Mother’s Day because I wanted my friends to see them first. But since there isn’t an overly “Mother’s Day” theme to these cookies, they would be perfect almost any time of year! Like a baby shower, bridal shower, birthday, graduation, or just to celebrate Spring!

How to Make Them

Of course, start by making your cookie dough. For these cookies, I actually flavored the dough with some orange zest and cardamom. Oh my were they heavenly. I actually share the exact recipe in my Christmas Cookie guide, even though this flavor is good year-round. 

Cut out the cookies into your desired shape, in this case a butterfly, plaque, or any other standard shape (circles always work!), then bake them until they are barely golden brown around the edges. 

Once the cookies have cooled, you can start to decorate!

First, outline and fill the entire cookie with flood consistency icing and leave it uncolored. Let the icing dry completely (overnight is preferred) so that they will be at their best for painting. 

To prepare for the painting, dilute 1-2 drops of gel food coloring with a clear alcohol, like vodka, then paint on top of the cookie. The more vodka added the more diluted the color will be. I like to leave one well very pigmented, then add another little well of plain alcohol which I can use to create a more diluted shade of the color. 

Finally, you are ready to paint away! There isn’t a lot of rhyme or reason for painting, other than make sure you aren’t painting with a water-soaked brush. Between colors, clean your brush off in a glass of water, but then brush off all excess water before dipping back into the paint. The water will degrade the icing leaving little craters all across your cookie. Not cute!

The paint only takes a few minutes to dry, so once you are done you can pack the cookies into bags or set out to eat! 

Supplies

Like all my watercolor and painted cookies, the supplies for these cookies are pretty standard: food coloring, alcohol, and paint brushes. 

For the gel food coloring, I used all the bright colors in my collection: purple, pink, orange, yellow, and blue. I diluted the food coloring with some cheap vodka that I picked up at the liquor store. If you don’t keep vodka in your house or don’t have access to it, you can also use a clear extract, like almond extract.

Now for the paint brushes. I stress this in every post, but it is important to use clean (i.e. never used with paint) brushes. Wilton makes paint brushes specifically for baking, but I use normal craft brushes that I clean with dish soap before using. 

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Mom Tattoo Cookies

Now if there is anything I know about my mom, it’s that she hates tattoos. I am pretty sure she would disown me if I ever got one. However, I think there is something sweet about a tough guy with a mom tattoo. Everyone has a soft spot for their mom. 

Which is what inspired these Mom Tattoo Cookies. 

So while my mom may not appreciate a Mom Tattoo Cookies, maybe your mom will! Especially if she has some ink of her own! They are incredibly fun and easy to make if you need a last minute treat for Mother’s Day.

How to Make Them

Start by making your sugar cookie dough and cutting it out into shapes. I used old Valentine’s Day cookie cutters that were perfect for this tattoo-inspired cookie. 

Then outline and fill the entire cookie with plain flood consistency royal icing. Let the icing dry completely (overnight is preferred), then start painting!

I recommend outlining the shapes with a very faint line of paint first. You can go back and make corrections like you can see me do in the video. Then, when you are happy with your design, fill it in. 

Supplies

There are only a few supplies you will need for these cookies, and you may already have most of these on hand. 

You only need two colors of food coloring: red and black. For both colors, I diluted them with a bit of clear alcohol (vodka) to get different shades, like a light red and dark red, and a black and a light grey. 

If you have painted on cookies before, then you probably already have some paint brushes laying around. If not, please only use brand new brushes that have never been used with paint. Just head out to your local craft store and pick up some cheap brushes. Or, if they have a baking section, then you can use brushes specifically for food, like these. 

Lastly, you will need an edible ink marker. I think it’s what makes these cookies really stand out and look like an actual tattoo. 

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Black and White Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Can’t decide between a classic chocolate chip cookie, and a reverse chocolate chip cookie (chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips)? Well, you don’t have to! Instead, make these ying-yang-esque cookies which combine them both to make a black and white double chocolate chip cookie. 

Boy, that’s a mouthful. And so are the cookies!

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have caught my Instagram story about how my husband gave these cookies his stamp of approval. Normally, he is not a sweets eater. He is constantly turning down my invitation to try any of my baked goods. 

However, these cookies caught his eye and he asked me if he could have one (color me shocked!). After his first bite he said, “Wow, these are actually pretty good.” 

Actually pretty good. Now that’s a seal of approval if I have ever heard one. 

But really, these are so delicious. I love the combination of the classic cookie and it’s mirror image. There are so many layers of chocolate flavor, from the cocoa powder in the chocolate cookie, to the semi-sweet chips, to the super sweet white chocolate. Like I said, they are a mouthful in the best way possible!

How to Make Them

If you have ever made chocolate chip cookie dough before, you are in luck because that training will come in handy for these cookies. You will not only make one, but two chocolate chip cookie doughs which will be combined together to make these black and white double chocolate chip cookies. 

Spoon about 1 tbsp of dough onto the a baking sheet, then spoon the same amount of the other dough right next to it. 

I like to use this cookie dough scoop which makes the perfect sized cookie.

Roll the both of the cookie dough balls together to form one ball of dough. Then sprinkle a little bit of flaky sea salt on top (because every chocolate chip cookie needs a bit of sea salt). 

Once they come out of the oven, the cookies will form this ying and yang of chocolate and non-chocolate cookies. 

But together they form this wonderfully delicious cookie that combines all of the best types of chocolate. 

Supplies and Recipe

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Mexican Embroidery Cookies

I can’t lie to you. These are not my favorite cookies. 

I had such high hopes for them! Mexican embroidery is so beautiful and colorful, and I don’t feel that these cookies really do the art form justice. 

However, after posting the photo on Instagram, there was actually a pretty positive response to these cookies (maybe ya’ll just felt bad form me) and I thought that I should post the video anyways. At the very least, I hope that is will inspire you to create your own Mexican embroidery cookies that are MUCH better than the ones I made. 

How to Make Them

Making these cookies is relatively easy with the right icing and the right technique.

The dark purple bottom layer of icing is flood consistency icing, then all of the decorative additions are piping consistency icing. Piping consistency is just a tad thicker and holds some shape, but isn’t super thick. 

To make things even easier, most of the cookies are made using a teardrop shape. Once you perfect the teardrop, then you are in business to make these cookies. Start by piping a dot of icing, then releasing the pressure on the piping bag and dragging the piping tip in one direction to form the point. 

The rest of the elements are either plain lines or dots. So simple, right?

Recipes and Supplies

As usual, I counted on my sugar cookie recipe and royal icing recipe for these cookies. I think adding some fun flavors into these cookies would make them extra festive, like lime zest or even chili powder. 

For the supplies, I relied on my trusting round piping tips to make sure I got perfect dots and teardrops. I used a combination of #1, #2, and #3 round tips….mainly because I didn’t have enough of one or the other for all of my colors. You could use just one size or you could forgo piping tips all together and just cut a small hole in your piping bags. 

I think it’s the colors that really make these cookies pop. While normally I pick out the more muted and subtle shades in my food coloring set, for these I opted for the brightest colors I could find. Electric yellow, electric blue, fushia, tulip red, and leaf green round out the cast of bright colors for these Mexican embroidery cookies. 

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Now you are equipped with everything you need to show me how these Mexican embroidery cookies should be done!

Mason Jar Bouquet Cookies

What can I say about these cookies except that I love them so much!

I love mason jars, I love flowers (especially royal icing flowers, as you know), and anemones are one of my absolute favorites. In fact, I really wanted mason jars and anemones as my wedding! Sadly, anemones weren’t in season in October and my mom thought that mason jars and burlap were too “rustic”. Pshh…she clearly didn’t spend enough time on Pinterest in 2013.

So now I am living out my wedding flower dreams through these cookies (5 years later…don’t worry about it).

One thing I will say about these cookies before we dive in is that there is SOOO much icing on these things. It’s a little out of control. Unless you LOVE icing, it will be too much for you and you may want to scrape it off before you take a bite. Instead, you can make any of these cookies with buttercream instead which is a bit more palatable in large quantities. But I would keep the mason jar cookies iced in royal icing so you get a nice smooth surface.

How to Make Them

I had never made the anemone flowers before this video. Sure, I have some experience with piping other flowers, but I wanted to share that with you because you will probably get the hang of it after a few tries. I found that it was easier to keep them on the smaller side. Don’t try to make them too big. 

Another thing I have learned over the years from making flowers and watching others make flowers is that you want to use various shades of color in the same flower. No flower is just one flat color. It’s easy to mix the colors together by wrapping them up in plastic wrap. Plus, it keeps your piping bags clean so you can reuse them!

Tools and Recipes

I used a few different piping tips to create these flowers, even one I had never used before, the #150 flat petal tip. I found that this one was better at piping the anemone petals than the standard #104 petal tip. However, if you only have the standard petal tips at home, that will work just fine!

Piping Tips and Food Coloring:

Anemone:

Petals – #150 flat petal tip. Layered plain icing with a very light violet center.

Filament – #1 round tip. A mix of eggplant and black food coloring.

Center – #3 round tip. Same color as filament.

Hydrangea:

Flowers – #131 drop flower dip. Layered together plain, Wedgewood blue, and violet (mixed with a little Wedgewood blue) icings.

Rose:

Large cookie – #125 petal tip. Brushed watermelon food coloring directly onto the plastic wrap, and then spooned icing dyed with watermelon and purple on top.

Smaller rose in bouquet – #104 petal tip. Brushed watermelon food coloring directly onto the plastic wrap, and then spooned icing dyed with watermelon on top.

Leaves: #352 tip. Forest and leaf green mixed together.

Other tools:

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Recipes:

It should come as no surprise that I made my one and only royal icing recipe and sugar cookie recipe for these. Duh! You knew that was coming. However, one thing I will mention about the icing is that for the flowers you want it to be super duper thick. It should form a stiff peak when you lift a spoon up from the surface. You want each petal to be distinct and not melt into one another. If you accidentally mix in too much water, just add a bit more powdered sugar to thicken it up.

For the mason jars, though, you will want to use your regular ol’ flood consistency icing. 

Easy Coloring Book Cookies for Easter

If you are looking for a fun activity to make with the kiddos over the Easter weekend, I’ve got you covered! Check out these super easy and oh-so-cute coloring book cookies in some favorite Easter shapes. These cookies were both a lot of fun for me to make and to color. 

Why yes, I did color these in myself. I didn’t have any kids to test these out on, and I don’t think it would have gone over well if I had asked strangers to borrow theirs. Don’t worry, these particular cookies are off to Texas and will hopefully make it in time for Easter. 

How to Make Them

The first thing to making these cookies is to cover them with white icing or fondant. I used fondant because fondant is a little bit more forgiving when it comes to painting on cookies. For instance, if you add too much watercolor to dried royal icing, the icing will degrade and make a crater in the cookie. With the fondant, it will just get a little gummy, but will eventually dry as normal.

To cover the cookie with fondant, all you do is roll out the fondant with a fondant roller or rolling pin, cut out the cookie with the same cookie cutter used to cut out the cookie, brush some water on the back, and stick it to the cookie. Viola! 

The best part, you don’t have to wait for the cookie to dry. Also, the fondant is still a bit malleable for several minutes, so you can imprint shapes or images onto it to trace later! 

Okay, I know not everyone is a fondant fan, so if I still haven’t convinced you and you would prefer to ice the cookies, I recommend this post that details how to achieve the perfect iced cookies. 

If you are team fondant, this post gives much better instruction on how to attach the fondant to the cookie.

Once the cookies are iced or covered in fondant, outline the cookie with black piping consistency icing and create the image or shapes you desire. Depending on the age of the kids you are making these for, you may want to tailor your images to be more or less detailed. 

The great thing about using icing for this part, as opposed to drawing it with a black food marker, is that you have created barriers so that the kiddos are forced to stay within the lines. 

Finally, you will also want to create a little paint pallet for the kids to use. To make the pallet, I brushed drops of gel food coloring on a round cookie, then spread them out with a paint brush*. If you are transporting these cookies in any way, you will want to wait for the food coloring to dry before moving. They will still be a little tacky, but they should be dry in about 20 minutes. 

Finally, to paint these cookies, pour a small amount of clear extract (like almond) or clear alcohol (like vodka) (don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates after it is painted so the kids will not actually be ingesting it!) into a bowl and let the kids dip the paint brush into the extract, then brush into the color of their choosing. Then they can paint away!

If I were a kid, I would have lots of fun with the activity. Heck, I’m an adult and I had fun making these cookies!

Instructions

If you would like to print out instructions for your kids or other parents, feel free to copy the text below. 

  • Pour a small amount of clear extract or clear alcohol (don’t worry, the alcohol will evaporate before the kids eat it!) into a small bowl.
  • Wet the brush in the extract then brush over the color on the color pallet.
  • Paint over the cookie as desired.
  • If you run out of color, mix a little food coloring with the clear extract to make more.
  • Have fun!
Recipes and Tools 

I switched it up a bit with these cookies and decided to make a cross between my sugar-free whole wheat sugar cookies and my strawberry honey sugar cookies from my Summer collection. Essentially, I made the strawberry honey cookies, substituted agave for half of the sugar, and added in whole wheat flour. They were delish! And I think kids and parents alike will like these because they are tasty and they have less sugar than your average sugar cookie. 

But if you don’t want to buy my Summer cookie collection recipes (I get it), the basic sugar-free cookie is still amazing! Or you can keep it old school and make my favorite sugar cookies. Don’t be afraid to mix it up a bit and add any flavors you like. I think lemon zest or lemon extract would be great for Spring!

You will also want to make a batch of royal icing for the black outlines. You only need a small amount, so I would recommend only making about half a batch (and you will still have some left over).

*Only use paint brushes that have been used on food. Never use paint brushes that have actually come into contact with paint. Its okay to use normal craft brushes, but Wilton makes a set especially for food. I have included them below!

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Floral and Moss Easter Bunny Cookies

If you know anything about me, you probably know that I love a good floral cookie. It’s kind of my go-to (because it’s actually easier than it looks). Whichever way I can put a flower on a cookie, I have tried. Well, I thought I tried, until now. 

Meet the new floral decorating technique….

Actually, I have no idea what to call it, any ideas? 

Some people will call this technique brush embroidery. And I suppose that’s probably how I should classify it. But I think of this technique more as painting with icing (as opposed to my usual watercolor mix). Whatever we call it, I certainly think they are pretty, don’t you?

Oh, and you can’t forget about the little moss covered bunnies. Now those are easy! And just as cute, don’t you think?

How to Make Them

What I love about these floral Easter bunny cookies is that they have dimension. That is something that you just can’t get with painting! 

My husband’s favorite is the moss Easter bunny cookie. Even though it’s simple, it still is adorable, and I think it goes perfectly with the floral design as sort of a little garden Easter bunny cookie set.

Why I love the moss Easter bunny so much is because it’s easy! While I love making the floral pattern, it is time-consuming, so it’s nice to have some simple cookies to balance them out. 

But this little guy still has my heart!

Recipes and Products Used

As usual, these sugar cookies are my favorite sugar cookies which means they are just flavored with vanilla and almond extract. But I think Easter is the perfect time to break out some other cookie flavors! Even just adding some different extracts like lemon, lavender, pistachio, or coconut. Or, you can flavor them with some of your favorite berries, like strawberry or raspberry. Just check out my Summer cookie collection. 

For the royal icing, I added a touch of almond extract, which is something I rarely do. But I really liked it. Another go-to in the Spring and Summer is adding some lemon juice or lemon extract. It really makes the flavors pop!

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Flower Crown Easter Bunny Cookies

These cookies are up there with my all-time favorites! They have all of my favorite things: gingham, royal icing flowers, and cute little animals!

I actually created the flower crown Easter bunny cookies for a brand new cookie decorating class I do through Skillpop in Charlotte. People had been asking me to do a class devoted to piping tips, so I delivered! And since Easter is right around the corner, I decided to do something Easter themed! And you know I love a good flower crown!

But since most of you aren’t able to make it to my cookie decorating classes, I wanted to show you how I made them so that you can make them, too!

How to Make Them

As all the students in my piping tip class would tell you, creating the flowers was the easiest part of decorating their flower crown Easter bunny cookies! While they add a lot of detail and seem very intricate, they are actually very simple to create.

The trick is having the right consistency of icing and having the right piping tips!

If you go back to my royal icing post and watch the video you will see me add water to the icing to thin it down. Now, stiff consistency icing is the consistency of the icing before I added any of the water! It forms a peak when you lift a spoon up from the surface and it has very little movement.  That is the consistency you want when you use piping tips.

As for the piping tips themselves, I tend to stick to my tried and true favorites for creating any flower design:

  • The blue drop flower is a Wilton #224 tip
  • The dark pink flowers are made with a #14 open star tip
  • The light pink flowers are made with a #24 closed star tip
  • The leaves are made with a #349 tip
  • The dots are made with a #2 round tip

A lot of my piping tips are from this piping tip set that I bought years ago and still use to this day. But I have supplemented by buying individual piping tips from Michael’s, Amazon, or directly from Wilton. 

The gingham print is also so easy to make but makes the cookies look that much more unique!

All you do is dilute gel food coloring with a bit of clear alcohol or clear extract (like almond), and then paint lines. I find that I paint straighter lines when I move horizontally from left to right. I also recommend letting the paint dry for about a minute before painting the perpendicular lines on top. That ensures that you will actually paint on top of the first line instead of brushing the color off.

Easy peasy!

I hope you try out these cookies for Easter! I know your friends and family will love them! 

If you do make these flower crown Easter bunny cookies or the gingham print cookies, please take a photo and tag me on Instagram. I love seeing what you create!

Products and Recipes

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For these cookies, I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe, but if I make them again I will probably make my strawberry honey sugar cookies from my Summer cookie recipe collection. They are oh so good and they are pink, which just seems appropriate!

And of course, I used my royal icing recipe for both flood and stiff consistency.

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