Sunflower Sugar Cookie Bouquet

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Nothing feels more like late August and September than sunflowers. Big, yellow sunflower heads that are as rich and golden as the late summer days. This tutorial will show you how make sugar cookies and decorate them to look like a bouquet.

Cookie Cutters & Tools

To make a sunflower bouquet, there’s a few cookie cutters that you need. I used a sunflower cookie cutter, mason jar cookie cutter, and a leaf cookie cutter. I used a knife to hand cut the mini pumpkins (doesn’t give the same sharp edge as a cookie cutter) or here’s a little pumpkin cookie cutter.

To pipe on royal icing, you’ll need some piping bags. We’re not using any special tips, all you have to do is make a small cut at the tip of the bag with scissors.

To do some rustic “painting” on the mason jar, I used a food safe brush. These brushes come in handy all the time if you like to decorate or paint edible gold on your desserts.

Step 1: Bake Sugar Cookies

I baked one batch of my easy soft cut-out sugar cookie recipe.

It starts by creaming the butter and sugar. Mixing in an egg, vanilla, salt, and flour. It’s that easy!

The best way to keep cookie shapes sharp is to chill the dough before rolling out. Once chilled, roll the dough to 1/4-inch thick. Cookies that are slightly thicker will be soft in the inside and slightly crisp on the outside.

Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, place on a baking tray with parchment, and bake!

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Check out these other cookies ideas!

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Step 2: Royal Icing Prep

While the cookies cool you can prepare your royal icing. For more questions about royal icing, check out my easy royal icing recipe blog post.

My favorite food dye is Americolor food gel because it’s very vibrant and a little goes a long way! The colors used are: AmeriColor Super Black, Lemon Yellow, Pumpkin, Forest Green, Super Red and Espresso (for painting).

To dye, separate the frosting into five bowls, mix in the dye with a rubber spatula, and then pour into piping bags. For white icing, you can scoop it straight into a piping bag. Follow the chart below for measurements.

COLOR	GEL COLOR
White (1/3 cup)
Orange (1/4 cup)	1 drop pumpkin
Yellow (1/2 cup)	1 drop lemon yellow
Black (1/4 cup)	3-4 drops super black
Green (1/4 cup)	2 drop forest green
Red (1/4 cup)	1 drop super red

Watch the Video: Easy Fall Sugar Cookie Bouquet

How to Decorate Fall Sugar Cookies

Mason Jar

Start by using white icing to outline the cookie, then fill in with more icing. Wait five minutes and then pipe the lid by adding small “broken” lines. If we don’t connect the lines, then it looks more rustic.

After the white icing has completely dried, it’s time to paint on the cookies. If you try to paint on the cookies when they are not fully dried, then you’ll wind up with a mess! The color used to paint this cookie is espresso brown from Americolor using a food safe brush.

To begin, place a dot of food dye on a washable surface such as a plate or paper towel. Then dip the brush into the food dye and wipe the excess on a paper towel. With a light hand, paint over the letters, lid and any other areas you’d like. Too much pressure will crack the cookies surface.

Sunflower

Use yellow icing to pipe a border around the cookie and then fill in with icing.

Once the cookie has dried for five minutes, use black icing to outline a circle in the center and fill in.

Avoid Color Bleeding: Before piping black icing, try the oven drying method after piping the base layer. Turn on the lowest heat setting on your oven. Place cookies on a pan onto the center rack of the oven. Keep in the oven for 5-8 minutes. Cookies left too long in the oven can crack.

After the black icing has dried, add little dots to the center. Pipe little green dots around the center.

Then use the yellow icing to pipe a borders around the petals. By adding these distinguishing lines, the flowers really come alive!

Leaves

To make simplistic leaves, use green icing to pipe a line down the center then add the rest of the leaves “veins.”

Now to add some fall colors! Fall sugar cookies can be easy and cute at the same time. Pipe red and orange dots in various places for pops of color and texture.

Another style leaf is to outline the cookie in green icing and fill in.

Mini Pumpkin

There are many ways to decorate pumpkin cookies to get that textured 3-D look. For this style, pick one side to start on. Break down the piping into four sections and let the icing dry for a few minutes in-between.

If you don’t let icing dry it’ll run together.

Lastly, add a green stem. Let the cookies fully dry (12-24 hours).

Arrange the bouquet by carefully placing fully dried cookies slightly overlapping each other. Dried royal icing is delicate so try not to move them around too much.

How Long do Iced Cookies Need to Dry?

It can take between 12-24 hours depending on the weather but it also depends on how humid your kitchen is. It can also depend on how runny your icing was when piping. To be sure the cookies are fully dry when packaging or serving, I recommend letting the cookies dry overnight.

How To Store Iced Sugar Cookies?

Iced sugar cookies can be stored in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. I don’t recommend freezing them.

How to Gift These Cookies?

Arrange cookies in a donut box. First lay down parchment or wax paper and then arrange the cookies. Don’t stack cookies on top of each other as they are still delicate even when dried.

RECIPE CARD