How to Make a Sunflower Cookie Platter

If you've followed my last two recent posts, you probably sensed a common theme this season... my obsession with sunflowers.

Well that obsession continues, at least one more time, with this post.

Here's a very easy sunflower cookie platter design that I'm sure will please all your party guests. I love it because there's not a lot of decorating skill involved and it's super quick to assemble.

And I promise, after making this platter, I got my fix of sunflowers cookies. They're totally out of my system now (for this season at least).

Sunflower Cookie Platter Cookie Cutters

Recently added to the shop is this Sunflower Platter cookie cutter set.

This sunflower platter cookie cutter works along with a center 3.5″ circle cookie cutter. You can purchase both cookie cutters together, or as a single piece without the circle cutter.

(This is the same circle cutter used in this Snowflake set, and Floral Wreath.)

When arranged as a large sunflower design, as shown in the example picture, the platter measures 12 inches in diameter.

Template for the Sunflower Cookie Platter

To help with the decorating process, I made a PDF template of all the new autumn designs, including this sunflower cookie platter.

You can download the new Autumn cookie templates 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 tracing the design onto the cookie with an edible food marker.

The Decorating Process

To decorate this Sunflower Cookie Platter, you will need the following suggested colors:

• Sunflower Yellow piping and flood icing (I mixed Americolor Egg Yellow with a touch of Americolor Gold.)
• Brown piping and flood icing (I used Rainbow Dust Chestnut.)
• White piping icing (I used Americolor Bright White.)

Step 1

When you bake your sunflower petals, to add variety and interest, be sure to flip half of the petal cookies so they face in the other direction. (For this platter I used 16 petals. So be sure to flip 8 of them.)

Step 2

After the cookies are baked and cooled it's time to decorate. Outline and flood the petals with yellow icing, and the circles with brown icing.

Let the cookies dry completely for about 3-6 hours.

Step 3

Once the petals are dry, pipe the detail lines. (I used a PME #2 tip.)

NOTE: You technically only need to add these detail lines to top 8 petals of the platter. The lower layer of cookies can remain simply flooded without the outlines.

Step 4

For the center message, I added the phrase "hello fall". If you want to add the same message, you can find this lettering design in the PDF template file I mentioned above.

My natural handwriting is atrocious. That's why I love using my Pico Projector to help guide me. Shown below, I like to use a PME #1 tip for any lettering on cookies.

Let this icing dry for about 1 hour before moving on to the next step.

Step 5

Once the white message icing was dry, I felt the center cookie still needed a little "something". So I piped a border around the edge with a #3 tip and sprinkled brown sanding sugar onto the wet icing. This gave the overall sunflower design some added dimension and texture.

Let all the sunflower cookie pieces dry completely.

Step 6

Now it's time to assemble the platter.

Add the first layer of plain, flooded cookies to the platter. (For the dish, I used a pizza pan from the dollar store.)

Step 7

Then add the top layer of cookies, as shown. Ta Da! You're done!

In total, it took 18 separate cookie pieces to fully assemble this sunflower cookie platter-- 16 petal cookies and 2 center circle cookies.

It's almost officially fall in two days! This platter would be a nice presentation to ring in the start of the season.