GINGHAM BUNNY COOKIES

Made some bunny cookies yesterday to take for Easter dinner along with the cupcakes my three youngest grand-babies and I are going to decorate on Saturday.  I call these funny bunnies because they are an egg cookie cutter made to look like a bunny.  I love beautiful cookies with royal icing but my family does not - they want buttercream frosting on my sugar cookies and that my friends makes it hard to decorate them so I came up with the funny bunny.  I also discovered that if you get confused about which is the large end and decorate it with the wider part at the top you get "lion bunny." LOL.

 Using a sugar cookie recipe that has sour cream (will post recipe below) I rolled my dough and cut out my cookies with a simple egg shaped cookie cutter.

 Here we are, perfect little "eggs" ready to be decorated.

Using a small off-set spatula (use whatever you have) frosted the cookies with a a good amount of buttercream frosting.

Next using a little homemade stencil from a project last year I
sprayed the cookies with Wilton's color mist, using pink, yellow and purple.

Set the color mist cans on the ends of the stencil to stabilize the stencil and get a better spray.

 Example of the "gingham" look on the buttercream.

I recently discovered that The Cookie Countess makes a stencil and I sent for one and just as I had finished my cookies the mail came with the stencil.

I grabbed a cookie out of the freezer and quickly frosted and used the new stencil - really I don't see much difference between this one and my homemade one from a piece of plastic cutting out the lines with an X-acto knife but the new one does not have a piece of tape on it where the stencil came apart on mine!!  The lines on the purchased one are closer together.

 Once they were all painted, time to decorate the 24 cookies.

I used bubblegum Jelly Bellies for the ears, large sprinkles for the eyes and cheeks, a red sprinkle heart for the nose and then using the edible pens did the "whiskers" and using a scriber needle made a mouth in the frosting.

The scriber needle is perfect to place the sprinkles, you just drop them on the cookie and can move them around with the needle and then when you have found the right spot just push them into the frosting using the needle.

Here are a few of the funny bunnies - ready to go onto a cookie sheet and into the freezer until Sunday. They may not be as beautiful as cookies made with royal icing (be still my heart David at Good Things by David and others make works of art) but they are a nice thick sugar cookie with yummy buttercream frosting and you get to chew a couple of Jelly Bellies - what's not to like?

Sour cream sugar cookies:

 3 1/2 cups King Arthur AP flour
1/2 cup of butter softened
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.
In your mixer cream together the softened butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until it is pale and creamy, then add the sour cream and mix until all combined.  Add your dry ingredients slowly to your wet ingredients and leaving your mixer on low, continue until it is all combined.

Remove from the mixer and wrap in clear wrap.  Roll out using Wondra flour on your surface and cut out your desired shapes and bake on a Silpat lined cookie sheet for 325° for approximately 12 minutes - I turn the cookie sheet at the half-way point.

Take the cookies out and let them cool on a rack while you prepare your frosting.

Buttercream Frosting:
2 - 2/1 cups powdered sugar, SIFTED
1 cube butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
A itty-bitty pinch of salt
a few drops of cream or milk

For me the secret of good buttercream is two things, sift the powdered sugar and whip the butter until it is light and fluffy and then after you add the sifted powdered sugar, vanilla, salt and if necessary a little milk or cream - after it is all combined (you don't want a powdered sugar storm in your kitchen) turn your mixer up to medium and then go do something and just let it whip - be patient and  you will end up with this smooth, easy to frost with, no sugar grit, yummy buttercream frosting.

Resource

Stencil, The Cookie Countess, Link
Scriber Needle, Craft stores
Color spray mist, edible pens, Wilton, Walmart, online, etc.
Heart sprinkle, Confetti Jumbo Red Hearts 2.4 oz. CONJRH
These sprinkles are adorable for Hello Kitty Cookies, see my previous posting, Link
Big sprinkles for face of funny bunny, Walmart and specialty stores.
Beautiful cookies, Good Things by David, Link

Thank you for stopping by.