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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