Recipe: Sparkling Bunny Tail Cookies {They Come Out Of The Oven Like This!}

Summary: I love watching those cookie icing videos, they make such cute and complex designs look so effortless. I have dabbled in Easter cookie icing and my results were mixed. Some were really janky and others were pretty cute. So, this year I wanted to come up with a cookie that looked amazing but didn’t need a whole new skill set. These bunnies are great because they basically come out of the oven decorated! Coloured sanding sugar (there’s a DIY recipe at the end) is rolled into the dough before the cookies are cut and gives these bunnies a beautiful sparkle. You could stop there but I added some fluffy buttercream tails for extra cuteness. No need for fancy ingredients you wouldn’t have on hand either, just pink liquid food colour from the supermarket and maybe a bunny cookie cutter.

These came out so good! Just exactly as I had them in my mind. It’s really hard to capture in a photo but these bunnies are so sparkly and sweet in real life. Mr Ask kindly 3D printed these adorable cookie cutters for me. I just love having that as an option. I told Mr Ask what I wanted and he was straight on it. By the time I was rolling out the first batch, my new cookie cutters were made! How’s that for service? But any bunny cutter would be just fine!

You can buy premade coloured sanding sugar but it can be pricey, so I made my own and put the recipe for that at the end. The pre made kind seems to have a little shimmer, so you can add some luster dust or edible glitter to the mix (there is debate over edible glitter and you need to decide if it’s right for you). If the sanding sugar isn’t sticking, just let the dough warm up a bit and roll again. I like to simplify where I can, I’ve tried skipping some of the chilling steps but as this is a soft dough, you really need them. If you skip chilling the rolled dough they’re pretty impossible to cut nicely. It’s kind of difficult to reroll the scraps because of the sanding sugar. I rolled the dough out in 3 batches and saved all the scraps together in a snap lock. I rolled the scraps out, added more sanding sugar and again saved my scraps. After that I skipped the sanding sugar and just made some plain ones for the fam. 

Not only are these cute to look at they taste amazing! A crisp but tender sugar cookie that has a sweet crunchy top. I shared these out among the family and they were adored by all. They are quite moreish and I struggled not to eat the by the handful. And they really are the cutest things! If you give these a go, I’d love to see your pics xx

Ingredients 

• 250g salted butter, softened
• 250g castor sugar
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• few drops pink food colouring
• 2 eggs, room temp
• 500g plain flour
• 80g cornflour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup pink sanding sugar (see below)

Icing For Tails

• 125g salted butter,
• 250g icing sugar
• 1-2 tblsp milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• Iridescent food glitter, optional

Instructions

1. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or in a bowl with electric beaters) cream butter, vanilla and granulated sugar together, until pale and fluffy.
2. Then add the eggs one at a time and beat until fully incorporated. Add a few drops of pink food colouring and mix until a desired colour is reached. It will lighten a little once the flour is added.
3. Sift flour, cornflour, salt. With the mixer on low, mix in the dry ingerdients, in a few additions, until a ball of soft dough develops. Tip the dough out onto plastic wrap. Pat the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour.
4. Preheat to 180C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
5. Working in batches, roll out to a 4mm thickness. The dough is soft, so I prefer to work on a baking paper and I lightly flour the top. Once the dough has warmed up a little, sprinkle heavily with pink sanding sugar and give a gentle roll to incorporate pink sugar into the top of the dough. Use the baking paper to slide the dough onto a tray and chill for another 10 mins so the dough is easy to cut.
6. Cut cookies with bunny shaped cutters. Place cookies on a baking paper lined tray. Bake for 7 minutes, allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire tray to cool.
7. To make the frosting: Add the softened butter to the bowl of a stand mixer (or a bowl & electric beaters) and beat until the butter is pale.
8. Add half the icing sugar and half the milk and vanilla and beat on low until incorporated. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat on low until incorporated. Add extra milk to thin as needed. Beat on high for at least 5 mins, until smooth and fluffy.
9. Add the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a small star tip (I used a Wilton 22) & pipe frosting on bunny tails. Sprinkle with edible glitter if desired.

To Make Sanding Sugar

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• A few drops of liquid food colour
• Edible glitter or luster dust, if desired

1. Pre heat the oven to 120C.
2. Add the sugar to a snap lock bag and a add a few drops of food colour. Seal the bag and massage the colour into the sugar. Add more food colour as desired. Massage the sugar until the colour is uniform.
3. Pour onto a lined baking tray and spread the sugar into a flat layer. Bake for around 5 minutes, just enough to dry out the sugar but not melt it.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Pour into a snap lock bag, add luster dust or glitter if desired. Seal the and massage again to break up any clumps.
5. Store in an airtight container for pretty much forever.