Bumble Bee Sugar Cookies

Last week was the reveal of the DIY blogger house at the Parade of Homes in Daybreak, UT.  They asked if I would make 10 dozen bumble bee sugar cookies for the evening!

It took THREE days, but I’m pretty happy with how they turned out!  And they were a HUGE hit, but honestly I really didn’t like making them, I would much rather make a cake!  So no more orders for cookies or cupcakes- CAKE ONLY!

I use my traditional sugar cookies recipe (the one I got from my Grandma).

roll out to 1/4 inch- the thickness is KEY- you want a nice thick cookie.

cut into shapes!  Try to use as much of the FIRST roll out as you can.  Once you start kneading the dough it get’s thicker and doesn’t end up tasting as good.  I only knead and roll out and cut 3 times, after that I toss the rest of the dough.

Cook at 350 for 8-12 mins, you want the cookies to be JUST cooked, don’t over cook them. I usually cook the first pan 9 mins and the rest (once the pan is warm) 8, but every oven is different so play it by ear.

For the frosting I use this frosting recipe, if you want to be able to stack them I’d suggest using royal icing, but for TASTE I like this one better, you can stack them a BIT but I wouldn’t SHIP them or anything.

To detailed cookies you do the edging first, in a thicker frosting.  In some cases  you edge the whole cookie, for the bee’s I did just the white wings.  I decided to add some details in the wings, you want the ENTIRE outline to DRY.

To Thin Icing: To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon milk at a time. Keep adding milk until it’s thin enough that when you stir it the lines will smooth out by the time you count to 10.

I have a clear tutorial on my airplane cookie post about how to do the color flow technique to get the bubbled up, thick icing! So fill it in with white and LET DRY

Black is hard to get in frosting.  I started by adding dark cocoa powder (to the thick icing), until it tastes good (you don’t want it TOO chocolatey), then add black powder food coloring until your happy with the color!  Added the darker outline, and LET DRY

Fill in with the thinned yellow, and LET IT DRY

Fill in the remaining spaces with thinned black icing!  And again LET IT DRY!  It’s the key to the whole effect, letting each step dry completely before moving on.  But it’s also one of the reasons it’s so time consuming!

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Bumble Bee Sugar Cookies

Cook Time

8 mins

Total Time

8 mins

 

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Author: Ashlee Marie

Ingredients

Cookies

• 6 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 C Butter
• 2 C granulated sugar
• 2 egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 C full fat sour cream

Icing

• 4 C powdered sugar
• 1/4 C whole milk
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp extract peppermint or almond
• Food coloring optional

Instructions

Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Sift flour, soda, salt, nutmeg and powder in a bowl.
3. In separate bowl cream the butter and sugar (use cookie paddles or dough hook this will get thick)
4. Add the egg and beat again
5. then add the vanilla and sour cream and beat it smooth
6. Mix in dry ingredients and beat smooth - it will be thick.
7. wrap up in wax paper or parchment paper and chill in fridge for 3-4 hours
8. preheat oven to 350
9. roll out to 1/4 inch and cut Bees
10. bake for 8-10 mins, until the edges get a slight golden color to them (don't over bake) let cool

Icing

1. Mix butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and peppermint in your mixer.
2. it will be thick at first, thin with milk to get a "toothpaste" thickness good for piping
3. separate your icing into three colors, white, black and a little portion for yellow
4. pipe the white wing outlines with the thick white - then fill with the thinner icing for a smooth finish
5. Take the thick black and pipe the outlines for the head, body and stripes
6. thin the black and fill in
7. thin the small portion of yellow icing and fill in the last two stripes!

Also the piping muscles in my arm hurt for 2 days after all this piping!  By the time I got to the end of all the piping I couldn’t open my hand by myself, I had to slide the bag out of my clenched fist and massage it open.  But they looked great, tasted better, and were a huge hit!  And it’s OVER!