Mother & Baby Rabbit Butter Cookies – House Beautiful

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until pale yellow.
Beat in eggs one at a time until well incorporated. Stir in vanilla
extract.

In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder together. Slowly add
dry ingredients to cream mixture. Divide dough into 4 pieces, wrap
individually in plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour.

Using one piece of dough at a time, roll dough on a floured board and
cut out about 18 cookies with a 5-inch-high rabbit cookie cutter.
Place cookies on parchment-lined cookie sheets, 2 inches apart, bake
in a preheated 350′ oven 10 to 15 minutes, rotating pans halfway
through baking time. Cool cookies on wire racks before decorating.

Repeat process and cut out about 1 8 cookies using a 2-inch-high
rabbit cookie cutter. Place cookies on parchment-lined cookie sheets,
1 inch apart, bake in a preheated 350′ oven 8 to 10 minutes, rotating
pans halfway through baking time. Do not bake large and small cookies
on the same baking sheets. Cool cookies on wire racks.

Glaze cookies: Thin royal icing with water until it is the
consistency of Elmer’s glue. Divide icing among 4 bowls and stir in
desired food coloring. Cover icing when not working with it. Pour
icing in the middle of the cookie and guide it to just the edge with
the back of a small spoon or brush. Allow icing to dry overnight.

Rabbit features are piped with #1 decorative tip fitted to a small
pastry bag half-filled with royal icing. This icing should be thick
but flow easily from the pastry bag. Add confectioners’ sugar if the
icing is too thin. Allow to dry at least 1 hour. Attach small rabbit
to the large rabbit with a dab of the icing. The other cookie
decorations are completed with several #2 and #14 decorative tips
fitted to small pastry bags and half-fiued with icing. A #21
decorative tip can be used for the powder-puff tails. Allow icing to
dry overnight before storing.