Drop of Disney

Happy Spring! While it’s finally starting to feel like Spring here, Disney has been celebrating the arrival of Spring since early March with the Flower and Garden Festival at EPCOT.

I went to the festival for the first time last year and was captivated by all of the colorful flowers, fresh produce, and adorable Disney character topiaries. The topiaries were definitely my favorite part of the festival. I loved how detailed they were and how creatively they were placed around the park.

To celebrate the weather getting warmer, I was inspired by the colors, flowers, and plants of the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival and so am excited to share these Flower & Garden Cookies!

These cookies are a sugar base topped with a fluffy buttercream frosting. To shape my cookies, I used a variety of cookies cutters including a flower, a circle, a fluted circle, a geometric pattern, and, of course, Mickey.

To frost the cookies, I used a four different piping tips–a large star tip, a grass tip, a petal tip, and an open star tip. To highlight the bright colors of the festival, I used gel food coloring in light green, orange, pink, and yellow.

Since the festival showcases different elements of a garden, such as colorful flowers, lush green plants, and topiaries, I wanted to highlight all of those in my cookies.

I made two different kinds of flowers. The first was shaped with the flower cookie cutter. To decorate it, I used an icing spatula to spread a layer of bright golden yellow buttercream and then placed a brown M&M in the center. For the second flower, I used the petal tip to layer pink buttercream petals on top of the fluted circle shaped cookies.

To add some green and Disney magic to the garden, I added succulents, grass, and topiary inspired cookies. For the succulents, I used the open star tip to decorate some of the Mickey shaped cookies. For the rest, I used the grass tip to create a layer of grass. To add a little color and a hint of Minnie, I added a small pre-made fondant flower. As the geometric circle cookies reminded me of the outside of Spaceship Earth, I decided to turn them into EPCOT inspired topiaries. First, I decorated them using the large star tip and then I added a little hidden Mickey using regular and mini M&Ms.

Of course, the Flower and Garden Festival also highlights fresh produce and so I added a few oranges by spreading orange frosting onto the round cookies and adding a green leaf using the petal tip.

I loved how colorful and cute these cookies turned out and I hope you all are enjoying the first few weeks of Spring!

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Flower & Garden Festival Cookies

Celebrate the magic of EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival with these delicious garden inspired cookies! These soft sugar cookies with fluffy buttercream perfectly capture the bright colors, beautiful flowers, and lush gardens of the festival and are a great way to celebrate Spring!

Course Dessert

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Chill Time 1 hour

Total Time 42 minutes

Servings 30 cookies

Ingredients

Cookies

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup unsalted butter, soft
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting

• 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 cup unsalted butter, soft
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons milk
• light green gel food coloring
• pink gel food coloring
• yellow gel food coloring
• orange gel food coloring

Decorations

• brown regular sized M&Ms
• yellow and orange regular and mini M&Ms

Equipment

• round cookie cutter
• fluted round cookie cutter
• flower cookie cutter
• geometric circle cookie cutter
• Mickey cookie cutter
• large star tip
• open star tip
• petal tip
• grass tip
• piping bags
• coupler

Instructions

Cookies

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, and vanilla and beat until combined.
3. Add the flour to the butter mixture and beat until it becomes and smooth dough. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
4. After the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Remove half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to about ¼ inch thickness.
6. Use cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes, placing cut cookies onto the prepared baking sheets.
7. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies into the refrigerator for 15 mins. This helps the cookies keep their shape when they are baked.
8. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting

1. In a medium bowl, beat butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla extract.
2. On low speed, gradually beat in powdered sugar, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Add the milk and beat until combined.
4. Turn to high speed and beat frosting until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
5. Divide into bowls and add desired amount of food coloring to each bowl.
6. Transfer the green and pink frostings to the piping bags. I recommend using couplers so that you can easily change the piping tips as needed.

Decoration

1. Using an icing spatula, spread the orange frosting onto the round cookies. Pipe a green petal on the top using green frosting and the petal tip.
2. Using an icing spatula, spread the yellow frosting onto the flower shaped cookies. Place a brown M&M into the center of each flower.
3. Using the pink frosting with the petal tip, pipe small petals around the edges of the round cookies, moving in one direction. Once the first row of petals is completed, pipe a second row of petals. Continue until you have reached the center of the flower.
4. Using the green frosting and the grass tip, pipe directly down onto some of the Mickey shaped cookies. If desired, add a pre-made fondant flower to make a Minnie cookie.
5. Using the green frosting with the open star tip, pipe straight down onto the rest of the Mickey cookies to make succulents. If desired, add a touch of pink frosting to make small flowers.
6. Using the green frosting and the large star tip, pipe straight down onto the geometric circle cookies to make EPCOT inspired topiaries. If desired, add a hidden Mickey using regular and mini M&Ms.

Recipe Notes

adapted from Joy of Baking