Sugar Cookie Bouquet for Mother’s Day

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How To Get Started

To make a beautiful sugar cookie bouquet, I used three cookie cutters, 8 Petal Daisy, Mason Jar, Plaque (Tag). I hand cut the leaves because I didn’t have a cutter with the leaf shape I wanted but you can buy a leaf shaped cookie cutter like this one.

To really make this “bouquet” customized to give as a gift, here is a list of more ideas.

• Choose cookie cutters of flowers that they like
• Use multiple cookie cutters of different sizes for a variety of flowers
• Dye royal icing in multiple colors or keep it one color for a monochromatic aesthetic

Also, this bouquet can be used for any occasion – not just mothers day! What makes this unique for mothers days, is the tag with the word MOM on it. But feel free to write any message you’d like.

How to Display/Gift This Cookie Set

This sugar cookie bouquet is meant to lay flat in order to be an easy way to display cookies. If you’re having a party at home, these sugar cookies would look beautiful arranged on a plate or platter that is flat.

If you are going to travel, pack these cookies in airtight containers but do not stack them. The royal icing on cookies is delicate and can crack easily if they’re stacked under too much pressure, especially during car rides.

If you’d like to put gift these in a box, I’d recommend a large donut box. This box is can fit about 10-12 sugar cookies. To pack cookies in these boxes, first put down a piece of parchment or wax paper. Then, add crinkle paper to stop cookies from moving around.

Step #1: Bake Sugar Cookies

This sugar cookie recipe is very easy to make, you just need enough time for the chilling dough. Start by beating the butter at high speed, then add the sugar and beat until incorporated. Add the egg, vanilla extract, salt and mix. Then, add the flour in two parts and mix until the dough comes together.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Dough that has been chilled overnight needs to slightly softened or it will be impossible to roll out. Let the dough thaw slightly at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes. Depending on how warm your kitchen is, it might still be hard but that’s okay. As you work with the dough, the warmth of your hands will soften it.

Roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thick. I’ve experimented many different thicknesses of dough and this is perfect for a soft center but crispy edge cookie. Preheat the oven to 350℉ (177℃). Prepare baking trays with parchment paper and place cut outs about 2 inches apart. 3-4 inch shapes should be baked for 9-10 minutes or until just golden brown on the edges and bottoms.

Use a spatula to transfer sugar cookies to a cooling rack. Don’t let them sit on the hot pan or they will keep baking. Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating.

Step #2: Make Royal Icing

Make the royal icing by mixing sugar and egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. I use my two ingredient royal recipe which is also on the recipe card below. This recipe makes pipe-able icing consistency, which is great for decorating.

For piping the green center of the flowers (shown in the image above), you will need to make some stiff consistency icing.

1. Scoop 1/3 cup of royal icing into a separate bowl. Add 1 tbsp of powdered sugar and mix.
2. Dip a spoon/spatula into the icing and hold it over the bowl. If the icing slowly runs off the spatula, add another tbsp of powdered sugar. Keep adding powdered sugar until the icing doesn’t run off.
3. Dye this icing with a small drop of moss green and add to a piping bag and set aside.

To dye royal icing, I like to use AmeriColor food gel dye because a little goes along way. Also, gel dye doesn’t add unnecessary liquid which can change royal icing consistency. This cookie set uses AmeriColor soft pink, sky blue, super black, lemon yellow, moss green, electric green, and orange. You’ll also need some piping bags and either make a knot in the piping bag or a clip so icing doesn’t leak out.

4. Scoop 1/3 cup of white icing into a piping bag, tie the bag or use a chip clip to keep it from leaking and set aside.
5. Add 1/4 cup of icing into a bowl and dye with 2-3 drops super black. Scoop into a piping bag and set aside.
6. For the remaining colors, separate 1/3 cup of icing into bowls. Dye the icing following the drops amount below.

ICING COLOR + CONSISTENCY	COLOR
White medium consistency
Pink medium consistency	1 drop soft pink
Yellow medium consistency	tiny drop lemon yellow
Blue medium consistency	tiny drop sky blue
Light green medium consistency	tiny drop electric green
Moss green stiff consistency	tiny drop moss
Black medium consistency	2-3 drops super black

To create the pretty orange color on the center of the flower, we will “paint” with royal icing. Use a food safe brush to mix and paint on cookies.

WATCH THE SUGAR COOKIE BOUQUET VIDEO

Step #3 Decorating the Sugar Cookie Bouquet

Cut small holes across the tip of the piping bags. Always cut smaller holes first as you can always cut the hole larger if needed.

Rustic Mason Jar Vase

1. First, use blue icing to pipe an outline and then fill in.
2. Before the icing dries, pipe “stems” with the light green icing. This is called the wet on wet technique. The stems will look like they are in the vase inside of laying on top. Let this cookie dry for about 5 minutes.

3. Use the blue icing to outline the mason jar as shown above and let it dry.
4. Once the icing has dried, use white icing to pipe a bow on the lid.

Gift Tag

1. Outline the cookie with white icing, flood it and let it dry.
2. I cut the tip of the black icing bag slightly larger to make the words thick, but you can cut this smaller for more delicate lettering. Pipe the word mom or whatever message you’d like and set aside to dry.

Leaves

1. Pipe light green onto half of the leaf and let dry for about 5 minutes.
2. Once the first side has dried, pipe the other half of the leaf. By letting the first side dry, it creates a 3D effect.
3. Optional I piped a little bulky bee using the colors I had already made for the other cookies.

Cheerful Flowers

1. Use yellow icing to outline the cookie.Then, fill in the cookie and let it dry.
2. After it’s dry, use the same icing to outline the petals. (I let the center be messy because it’ll be covered up).

3. Repeat with pink icing.
4. Let the flowers dry completing. “Painting” requires pressure and it’s very easy to crack through a cookie with a brush.

5. Mix a drop of orange and half a drop of yellow food gel onto a paper plate. Then, with a very light hand, use an edible food brush to lightly dab color onto the center of the cookie.
6. Keep tapping with the brush gently so the color is lighter the further out it goes.

7. With light green icing, pipe a big center onto the flower.
8. Using the white icing, pipe two small lines onto each petal.

9. With the moss green icing, cut the piping bag tip very small. Then, start on the outside of the center and pipe small dots, lifting the bag straight up each time to create little peaks.
10. Once the entire center is filled, let the flowers dry.

Arranging the Bouquet

How you would like to arrange the bouquet is completely up to you! Once the royal icing has dried, carefully lay the cookies on top of each other because they can crack easily.

I think this looks so pretty on a plate for a mother’s day party – or what ever occasion you’re having!

How Long To Store Sugar Cookies?

Sugar cookies can be stored in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can store undecorated and decorated cookies in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 2 months.

If you liked this idea, check out more sugar cookie ideas here!

RECIPE CARD