How to Make Cheeky Sunflower Cookies
When I was a kid growing up in elementary school, maybe around 2nd grade, I achieved something I thought was so cool. It wasn’t a common grade school achievement, like progressing to shoe laces from Velcro, or learning to sign your name in cursive. No, it was something more random than that. I was so proud of myself when I could finally draw a decent-looking head of a Ninja Turtle. I know, I know. It was worthy of bragging rights and I made sure everyone knew it.
I drew those mushroom-shaped heads with bandana masks everywhere— on homework, on bathroom stalls (with washable marker), and even on my forearm with a ballpoint pen pretending I was a tough adolescent with a tattoo. (Michelangelo, represent!)
The point of that random story is those turtles with big cheeks from 20+ years ago was my inspiration today when I designed these cheeky sunflower cookies. Can you spot the resemblance? I think the smiles add a lot of fun personality to an otherwise typical flower shape.
Cheeky Flower Cookie Cutter
I added 4 new cookie cutter designs to the shop: a pilgrim turkey pair (a boy and a girl), a chubby leaf, and this cheeky flower.
The cheeky flower cookie cutter can be designed in any color combination, but since it’s autumn, I went with a sunflower color palette. This cookie cutter comes in Regular, Small, and Mini sizes. For the tutorial below I will be decorating the Regular size.
Template for the Cheeky Sunflower Cookies
I provided a downloadable PDF template file for the cheeky flower cookie design shown in this tutorial.
You can download the cheeky flower cookie template HERE.
If you have a Kopykake or Pico projector, just print it out (or pull it up on your mobile device) and you are good to go. For those without a projector, follow the suggested steps below by cutting out the template and tracing the design onto the cookie with an edible food marker.
The Decorating Process
To make these cheeky sunflower cookies you will need the following suggested colors:
- Brown piping and flood royal icing (I used Americolor Chocolate Brown.)
- Sunflower yellow medium icing (I mixed Americolor Egg Yellow with a touch of Orange and a touch of Chocolate Brown.)
- Black piping icing (I used Americolor Super Black.)
Step 1
Begin by marking where the outline of the center face should be. I made a head template from the template file above and used a food marker to draw the guideline on the cookie.
Step 2
Next, outline over the guideline with brown royal icing, then fill in the middle area. Let this icing set and dry for about 1 to 2 hours.
Step 2
Once the center head section had time to dry, pipe and flood the petals around the head in alternating order with sunflower yellow icing. Adding every other petal gives the cookie nice dimension. Let the icing set, then fill in the remaining petals. Let the cookie dry completely before moving on ( about 4 to 6 hours).
Step 3
This step is totally optional. To add extra autumn coloring, while also adding depth and shadows to these flowers, I dusted the cracks with rust colored petal dust. I used these petal dust palettes, which I love because of all the color choices included in one case.
Step 4
Lastly, outline the center head again, then add eyes and a big smile.
Video Tutorial
The steps above are summarized in this time-lapsed video.
These cheeky sunflower cookies pair well with these chubby leaf cookies I also added to the shop. In this picture, I decorated the regular and small sizes of both the flower and leaf cookie cutter.
I made the design of the cheeky flower cookie cutter pretty general so you can use is for multiple occasions, like daisies during spring time or Mother’s Day.
