Easter Bunny Cookies

I’m beginning to miss my cookie decorating days, so I made these adorable bunnies to celebrate Easter! They are honestly irresistible and such a fun activity to do with the whole family.

Cut Out Cookies
The trick to getting your cookies to maintain their shape is to remove the leavening agent, which means I did not include any baking soda or baking powder. In addition to that, you’ll want to rechill your dough before baking to prevent the butter melting too quickly and causing any spread.

Decorating with Royal Icing
To decorate these cookies, I used a couple different techniques. The light pink cookies were iced using a piping bag and the swirled cookies were dipped straight into the icing. I’ll be sharing videos of these different techniques on my Instagram later this week!

What you’ll need for the cookies:
– 1 stick butter, room temp (4 oz)
– 3/4 cup white sugar (150g)
– 1/4 cup brown sugar (50g)
– 1 egg
– 1 teaspoon vanilla
– 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 2 cups flour (240g)
– 1 Tablespoon milk
– Powdered sugar for rolling out the dough

What you’ll need for the icing:
– 1 Tablespoon meringue powder
– 4 cups powdered sugar
– 1/4 cup water plus 3 Tablespoons

What you’ll do:
– Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
– Add egg, vanilla, almond extract, and salt and beat until thoroughly incorporated.
– Mix in half the amount of flour until most of the flour has been incorporated, then mix in the milk.
– Mix in the remaining amount of flour, being sure to scrape the bottom to incorporate any flour that’s stuck to the bottom of the bowl.
– Form your dough into a disc that is about 1/2 inch thick and wrap with plastic wrap. Chill the dough for a couple hours until fully chilled or overnight.
– Lightly dust a clean surface with powdered sugar. Saving the plastic wrap, place your unwrapped dough on top of the powdered sugar and then place your plastic wrap clean side up atop of the dough disc (this will prevent the dough from sticking to your rolling pin).
– Roll your dough out so that it is a quarter of an inch thick. Every few rolls, make sure that you can lift your dough off the surface. Add more powdered sugar if needed.
– Use a cookie cutter to cut out desired shapes, rerolling out the dough when needed and keeping any unused dough in the refrigerator.
– Place cut out shapes on a lined baking sheet and place in the freezer while you preheat your oven to 350F.
– Bake your cookies for 10 minutes (they won’t change too much in color so you won’t be looking for visual cues like you normally would). Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool before doing any desired decorations.
– While your cookies are cooling, making your icing by adding all the ingredients to a bowl and whisk until lump free. I recommend using a hand or stand mixer. But if you do not have either, I recommend sifting your powdered sugar first.
– If desired, you can go ahead and dye your icing to the desired color. Be sure to set aside about 1/4 cup white icing first if you plan to make white bunny tails.

What you’ll do for the pink cookies:
– Fit a piping bag with a #2 piping tip. Add about 3/4 cup icing to the bag, squeezing the icing down so that it’s almost coming out of the tip. Twist the bag just above the icing to prevent any icing from coming out of the end. You can also use a bread tie or rubber band to secure the top.
– Using light, even pressure, line your cookies as close to the edge as possible without it spilling over. Once your cookie is outlined, continue going round in circles until the cookie is completely covered in icing. You’ll want to squeezing hard for that part. Allow the icing to dry completely before adding the bunny tails.
– While your cookies are drying, beat in 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar to your reserved white icing. This will thicken the icing so that it holds its shape for when you pipe the tails.
– Once the cookies are dry, fit a piping bag with a #199 tip and fill the bag using the same technique. Hold the tip perpendicular and just above to where you want to add the tail. Holding the tip still, slowly squeeze out your icing until the tail has reached your desired size. Stop squeezing, and then quickly lift up.

What you’ll do for the swirled cookies:
– In the same bowl you made your icing in, add several small drops of food color to the surface in various places. Using a toothpick, swirl the tip through the drops of icing so that it creates a fun pattern. (Less is more with this technique.) Hold your cookie upside down and dip into the icing. Slowly pull the cookie up, shaking away any excess. If there are any places that the icing did not cover on the cookie, use a clean toothpick and gently swirl the icing to coax it to the the desired place.
– Continue this process until all of the cookies have been dipped, adding more drops of food coloring if necessary.
– I didn’t add any tails to these cookies, but you can certainly do so using the method explained above.