Easter Cookie Cakes

Busy Bunny

As a baker, every holiday is a perfect time to make an abundance of sweet treats! This Easter, I experimented with some new cake pans, making the cutest little cookie cakes I have ever made! These mini cakes were perfect for a tiny sweet treat to share with a couple of loved ones during this joyous holiday. I created a small sale offering 4" mini square cookie cakes, 6" mini round cookie cakes, and, of course, 10" and 12" round cookie cakes. I created a few simple designs that were packed full of delicious buttercream Easter dreams. If you read my previous cookie cake story, basket weaves are an absolute favorite design, so I had to incorporate that into my sale. As well as little landscapes of buttercream bunnies playing in the grass, spring flowers galore, and other Easter designs. I basically made as many cookie cakes as I could and let my creativity take over. I had a ton of fun playing around with different piping techniques and designs I had never tried before. I think every one of these cakes turned out whimsical, fun, and unmistakably Easter-y!

I was gifted the most adorable 4" square pans. I received four of them and thought they would be perfect for the cutest little mini cakes! I have always wanted to dabble in the mini cake trend I've seen. However, when Easter began to turn the corner, I knew they were first destined for cookie cakes! I don't know if you have ever made a cookie cake, but you cannot go wrong making one! They are so easy to make and one of the best and most fun desserts. And it makes a minimal mess when you're mixing it all. Come on, who doesn't love a bake that only uses one bowl? You know we bakers love minimal dishes to clean after a long day of baking.

Now, when I make my cookie dough, I always make it the night before it gets baked. Or early in the morning, when I know I won't be baking until later that night. The key to delicious cookies, no matter what form they are baked, is chilling the dough! I feel like a lot of people skip this step, and it really takes your dough to the next level. Don't get me wrong, when I bake cookies for my household, I do not always chill my dough. It will not ruin your cookies one bit. However, chilling the dough solidifies the butter so the cookies don't spread as much as they bake, and you get a fluffier cookie! It's best to chill your dough for a few hours to 24 hours. Before I'm ready to bake, I like to let my dough sit on the counter for half an hour so it's easier to scoop out of the bowl and form into the cookie cake pans. Another pro tip is letting your oven get nice and hot before you bake. Think about a real bakery: their ovens are on all day long, and they get perfect cookies every time! I typically preheat my oven when I get my cookie dough out of the fridge.

Once your dough is softer, but not quite room temperature, I spray and line my pans. I spray and line my pans with parchment for everything I bake. This ensures nothing sticks to the pan, so your sweets come out nice and easy! Once the pans are lined, it's time to put some dough in. I fill my pans about 3/4 of the way to the top. The cookie dough will rise as it bakes, so you want to make sure you don't overfill your pan. Otherwise, you will have cookie dough spilling over, and that's a mess no one wants to deal with. Make sure your dough is nice and smooth, so it's easier to decorate after it's cooled!

The bake times on these vary depending on the size of the pan. The 4" pans baked for about 15 minutes, while the 10" and 12" pans baked closer to 30. When I bake cookies, I honestly don't leave the kitchen and keep my eyes on the oven. When baking any form of cookies, you want to look for a golden brown edge and a soft center. You don't want the middles raw, but you don't want to overbake them either. It is a fine line of baking, but once you find your groove, you'll get perfect cookies every time! Like everything in baking, it just takes practice, and you learn by doing!

Once all of the cookie cakes were baked, I let them cool for about 10 minutes before I took them out of the pan and transferred them to a cooling rack. Don't forget to run a spatula around the edges to keep the cake from sticking to the pan when you turn it over. That's another mess you don't want to clean up. Trust me, I would know! I let the cakes cool for a couple of hours before I started decorating. I made all of my buttercream after the first hour of the cakes cooling since I had a lot to color. When it was finally time to decorate, I just had fun with it. I got some new piping tips I wanted to try out and just let my creativity fly! The square 4" cakes, I piped a little grassy scene, full of flowers, and piped the cutest little buttercream bunnies! I had never done this before and was surprised I did it! You never know what you are capable of until you try! This is why I like to schedule a free bake in my calendar to allow myself to let loose and play around with tricks and techniques, completely stress-free.

For the 6" round cake, I, of course, piped a white basket weave with tons of pretty flowers overflowing the basket. This will forever be one of my favorite designs, and I will create one every chance that I get! I loved it! I had an order for the 12" cookie cake, with total creative freedom, as long as it was Easter-themed, so I piped a brown basket weave, lots of flowers, and the cutest little bunny butt you've ever seen. I piped a white bunny that seems to be diving into the basket to find some hidden carrots in the flowers. Unlucky for him, it was just flowers! Once everything was decorated, all of the cakes got dusted with gold luster dust to give them that beautiful shimmer they needed. They got their pictures taken, boxed up, and are ready to go to their new homes and be thoroughly enjoyed! I love making and decorating cookie cakes. It brings me such joy that words cannot describe. Especially when my customers let me know how delicious they are! I don't say it enough, but I love my clients and the fact that they reorder from me! I am truly blessed and grateful for the following I have.

Decorating is by far my favorite part of baking. With these, it was fun to let my creativity and imagination run wild and play around with colors and textures. Stress-free bakes are the absolute best! Again, I am thankful for my customers and the trust and freedom they give me with their special bakes. Thank you for being here and reading my crazy stories. See you for the next one! As always, happy baking!