Does this giant sunflower cookie look familiar? Well, my inspiration for it came from Martha Stewart’s beautiful sunflower cupcake cake, which you’ve probably seen. I clipped the photo from her magazine and had it tucked away…until a couple of days ago.
This design is so simple and sweet, and I knew converting the cupcakes to cookies would be as easy as pie, or should I say cookies?!?
If you have some round cookie cutters of various sizes, you’re good to go!
For the center cookie I used a 4-inch round cutter, and for the “petals” a 1.25-inch round cutter was used.
Of course, you can go as big or as small as you’d like. That’s part of the beauty of home baking.
I am charmed by sunflowers, and was almost giddy when I was setting up this cookie! I just love it! There is just something so cheery and happy about sunflowers:)
Martha (we’re on a first name basis, haha) used blackberries to top her center cake, but I frosted all of my cookies with royal icing, and topped the center cookie with dark chocolate jimmies.
I used AmeriColor food markers to detail some of the smaller cookies for a little bit of fun:)
Like Martha, I did use the stem and leaves from an actual sunflower, which is the perfect finishing touch!
Serving suggestion: Place the giant sunflower on the center of the table (or on a platter) with a pitcher of milk, some glasses and colorful straws. Let everyone pick from the sunflower for a yummy dessert or fun snack:)
ENJOY!
Giant Sunflower Cookie
Ingredients:
Food markers
Food coloring (I used AmeriColor soft gel pastes)
Chocolate jimmies
Stem and leaves from a sunflower
Directions:
1. Mix up a batch of sugar cookie dough.
2. Roll dough out about 3/8-inch thick.
3. Using the large round cutter, cut out one cookie from the dough, and place on baking sheet.
4. Using the small round cutter, cut out at least 36+ round cookies. (It looks like I used 37 small round cookies, if I counted correctly.)
5. Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes, until the edges just start to brown.
6. While the cookies cool, make a batch of royal icing.
7. Mix some brown gel (AmeriColor chocolate brown) into a small amount of royal icing for the center cookie. Cover and set aside.
8. Mix some yellow (AmeriColor lemon yellow) gel paste into a generous portion of the royal icing, for all of the small cookies.
9. Take a small portion of the yellow royal icing and add a drop or two of orange gel paste to it (to make a golden yellow color for some of the small rounds). Cover and set aside.
10. Outline and fill the large cookie with the brown icing. While still wet, add a generous amount of chocolate jimmies. Set aside to dry. When it is completely dry, shake off the excess jimmies.
11. Outline and fill the small yellow/golden cookies with the royal icing. Let dry completely.
12. Decorate some of the small cookies with orange and brown AmeriColor Gourmet Writers.
13. Arrange the cookies to look like a sunflower. Add a stem and leaves from an actual sunflower.
Linked to:
I’m Lovin’ it Party
Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday
Link Party Palooza
