Followers may notice my recent obsession with these portrait cookies. I started with this gift for my niece. The next year I made these favors for her art-themed birthday party. And now, portrait cookies for my mom for Mother’s Day.

This is my mom.

This is my brother and his family.

This is my sister and her family.

And this is me and my family.

Seriously, the likenesses are, ahem, uncanny. No really. It’s as if I studied the fine art of portraiture.

Gift-buying in my family is never easy. We all have way too much clutter and need very few things. That’s why I always turn to cookies. They can be personalized and they never leave clutter. Only crumbs (hahahaha…. groan).

Here are some favorites of Mother’s Day past:

all about mom Mother’s Day cookies

preppy cookies

over-the-rim cookies for mom’s tea

And of course, there are plenty of flower-themed ideas. Felt flower cupcake toppers, gerbera daisy cookie pops, carnation cookie pops, bite-size daisy cookies, how to make a flower cookie arrangement, springtime marshmallows.

 to make Mother’s Day family portrait cookies… I cut out rectangle cookies with my cookie dough. Bake and let cool completely. Then I prepared my royal icing and tinted it white and gold with Americolor Soft Gel Pastes (Bright White and Egg Yellow). I prepared a disposable decorating bag with coupler and tip, size “4″. I filled the bag with the gold icing and closed with a rubber band. I piped rectangles on the cookies, leaving a border. Then, I switched the tip to size “3″ and piped the frame part. After the gold set a bit, I thinned the white icing to flooding consistency, filled an empty decorating bag, snipped the tip and piped to fill the frames. Let the cookies dry super duper well, overnight.  And then I drew with the portraits with edible writers.  For basic cookie decorating how-tos click HERE. For tips on buying and using edible writers, click HERE.

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This is another one of those “whipped up with leftover icing” things. I’m not crazy about my piped designs, for which I blame my kids. Ugh, they always need stuff like dinner and formula. Point being, I really did whip these up. Too quickly. I may revisit the flower thing the next time I have leftover icing. But the beauty is, you can make your own, way better flowers.

to make royal icing flowers

you will need:*

royal icing

food coloring

disposable decorating bags

couplers

decorating tips, sizes “3″ and “4″

rubber bands

baking tray

wax paper

*Find the decorating bags, couplers and tips in the craft store. You’ll need one of each for each color you choose. For food coloring, I suggest Americolor Soft Gel Pastes (Electric Green, Electric Pink, Electric Purple, Egg Yellow and Orange used here).

step one: prepare your icing according to the recipe. Divide and tint your preferred colors. Prepare decorating bags with couplers and tips, fill with your colors and close tightly with rubber bands.

step two: pipe your designs. Line a baking tray with wax paper. Pipe small flowers, 1 to 2 inches tall. Let the icing dry very well, overnight.

step three: top your cupcakes. Carefully pull the flower off of the wax paper and gently insert into the cupcakes right after they are frostd (see below).

to make field of grass cupcakes

you will need:*

cupcakes

frosting

green food coloring

disposable decorating bag

size 233 tip

rubber band

*Find the decorating bag and tip in the craft store. Number 233 is also known as the “grass tip.”

step one: make your cupcakes and frosting. Prepare cupcakes and frosting. If you’re using store-bought frosting, you may need to thicken it with powdered sugar so it holds its shape. Tint green (I used Americolor’s Electric Green). Prepare the decorating bag with the tip, fill with frosting and close with a rubber band.

step two: frost your cupcakes. Holding the decorating bag vertically over the cupcake, squeeze and pull up while squeezing. Repeat to cover the cupcake. Immediately insert the flower toppers.

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Geez, I’ve done a lot for Spring in the past few years. Which is funny since I much prefer Winter. I know, I know, I’m the lone person out there for whom this is true. But snow is so dang pretty, I never tire of it. Just wish we actually got some this year. And I’m the type who doesn’t want the cold to end, I want to wear sweatshirts and sit in front of a fire. And the world is just quieter in winter, and gosh I like the quiet. And… enough longing for Winter. I need to psych myself up for Spring. Above are vegetable garden cookies. Ha, as if I actually “garden.”  As always, you’ll find everything seasonal in the Seasonal button up there, but below I’m linking to a few of my favorites.

I noticed a few themes in the collection. Each one is pretty predictable.

Cherry blossoms, of course, since I live in Washington DC and all. Cherry blossom cookies, painted cookies in cones, cherry blossom marshmallows, painted cherry blossom cookies.

Birds!   Bluebird brownie pops, poured sugar birdie cookies, painted birdhouse cookies, chicken (or hen?) cake pops.

Bugs! Bug marshmallow pops, butterfly cookies, bug topper printable on Oreo Cakester petits fours, bug cookies, easy Starburst dragonfly toppers, fondant bugs.

And of course, flowers.  Felt flower cupcake toppers, gerbera daisy cookie pops, carnation cookie pops, bite-size daisy cookies, how to make a flower cookie arrangement, springtime marshmallows.

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I suppose it’s only fair that if my brother had to work for his birthday cookies, my sister would, too. And I had to make sure my two, young nieces have my sister assemble these flowers before eating them, because she’s good at finding loopholes. For the record, she’s also good at throwing parties, being a mom, sharp jokes, discerning the character of others, giving advice and yelling while driving.

The cookie package contains four stems, five leaves, four flower centers and twenty-four petals. I included a note of explanation, but I think she might have even figured it out on her own. She’s a smartie. (I almost wrote “one smart cookie,” but then I figured you’d judge me for the bad pun.)

And by the way, to make sure these were assembled before eating, my nieces took the liberty of doing the assembling themselves. Here they are in action:

And here’s the final result. Interesting. I never thought to do multi-colored petals, but I like them much better than my own, boring, monotone ones. Kids are smart. (And these cuties are also available for any lucrative modeling gigs or Hollywood commercials.)

to make flower puzzle cookies

you will need:*

cookie dough

royal icing

circle cookie cutter

leaf cookie or fondant cutter

knife or dough scraper

heart cookie cutter

food coloring

disposable decorating bags

couplers

size “3″ and/or “4″ decorating tips

rubber bands

sprinkles (optional)

*Find the cookie cutters at specialty shops or in the craft store, perhaps as part of cookie or fondant cutter sets. You’ll also find the decorating bags, couplers, decorating tips and sprinkles in the craft store. I used a 1 1/4-inch circle, 2-inch and 3-inch leaves, and a 2-inch heart (the heart is for the petals). For the decorating tips, use any size you prefer. I chose a mix of “3″s and “4″s. For food coloring, I suggest Americolor Soft Gel Pastes, available in specialty stores or online. Leaf Green, Electric Green, Electric Pink, Orange, Turquoise, and Egg Yellow used here.

step one: Prepare the cookie dough according to the recipe. Chill and roll out on a floured surface and cut out your pieces: Circles for the flower centers and leaves for the, um, leaves. To make the stems, I used a dough scraper to cut out 1/2-inch by 4-inch rectangles. To make the petals, I cut a heart shape in half vertically, smoothing the sides with my fingers a bit. Bake and let cool completely.

step two: Prepare the royal icing according to the recipe. Divide and tint your preferred colors. I made yellow for the centers, pink, orange, and turquoise for the petals, and two shades of green for the stems and leaves. Prepare a decorating bag with coupler and tip for each color, fill and close the bags tightly with rubber bands.

step three: Decorate your cookies. Decorate however you like best. I outlined each cookie first and let set about 15 minutes. I then piped to fill each cookie. I used one consistency of icing, in between an outline consistency and a flooding consistency, so I could both outline and fill with the same decorating bag. For more tips on basic cookie decorating, click HERE. To make the flower centers, I piped and filled a circle with yellow icing then immediately coated with yellow sprinkles.  TIP: For easy decorating (where you don’t have to worry about the icing consistency, or seeing the “lines” of icing), just outline and fill the cookie and immediately coat in the same color of sprinkles.

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Oh, PEEPS. How silly, iconic, sweet, ubiquitous and a little bizarre you are. I know you arrive at every season, but Easter is really where you shine. Take your spotlight, Peeps. Enjoy it. Just don’t get too close to the spotlight (those things pack a lot of heat). When Michelle from Sugar Swings! Serve Some and Christi of Love From the Oven invited me to join them and fellow bloggers in a Peeps extravaganza, the Spring Hop Along PEEPS Party, the answer was kind of a no-brainer. Duh. Of course. We’re talking Peeps here. Be sure to hop along to everyone’s post, and there’s even a PEEPtastic GIVEAWAY!!

Scroll to the end of the post for all the links to the PEEPs party and for the GIVEAWAY details.

I went out and bought a plethora of PEEPS bunnies. I’ll call these Peeps bunnies in chocolate pudding egg shells. Seems a mouthful (literally, that’s how you have to eat them), but I can think of no better description. Peeps bunnies in chocolate eggs? Probably better. They are pretty easy to make, too.

how to make Peeps bunnies in chocolate eggs

you will need:*

Peeps bunnies

Wilton brownie pop silicone mold

semi-sweet chocolate chips

disposable decorating bags

paint brush

scissors

green candy melts

baking tray

wax paper

pudding or mousse

small spoon

royal icing flowers (optional)

*Find the brownie mold, disposable decorating bags, paint brush and candy melts at the craft store. I just piped the flowers with leftover royal icing I had, but you can also purchase pre-made flowers at the craft store.

step one: make your chocolate eggs

Place just over half a cup of chocolate chips in a disposable decorating bag. Melt in the microwave at 60 percent power for 90 seconds. Repeat at 30 second intervals until the chocolate is completely melted. Snip 1/4-inch from the tip and pipe a dollop of chocolate in a cavity of the brownie mold. Use the paint brush to brush the chocolate about 3/4 of the way up the sides. I used a good bit of chocolate to minimize breakage. A half of cup of chips should fill 8 cavities of the mold. Place in the fridge to harden about two hours. Carefully pop the chocolate eggs out of the mold and store in the fridge.

step two: make your grass

Line a baking tray with wax paper. Follow the same instructions above to melt green candy melts in a disposable decorating bag. Snip 1/4-inch from the end, and working with one egg at a time, loosely pipe a blob for grass and set a chocolate egg on top. Repeat with all the eggs and let set in the fridge to harden. If desired, add royal icing flowers before the candy melts harden, or pipe them after they harden.

step three: assemble your Peeps in eggs

Place a dollop of pudding or mousse in each egg. Snip the bottom off of a bunny and place in the cup.

 The Spring Hop Along PEEPS Party!!!

Be sure to visit all of the stops on the Hop Along PEEPS party! Here is the crew of talented bloggers knee deep in PEEPS.

And now… THE GIVEAWAY!!!

Our fabulous hosts, Sugar Swings! Serve Some and Love from the Oven, are giving away this PEEPS packed prize package.

Open to US Residents Only.  Use the Rafflecopter Widget below to enter, please remember it can be slow to load.  Good luck! Click here to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!