ingredients for 12:
- 1 bag M&M minis
- 1 18-oz. refrigerated cookie dough
- 1/2 cup flour
- Yellow, orange and red food coloring
- 12 6-inch lollipop sticks
- 1 can (16-oz.) vanilla or cream cheese frosting
- 1 box (18.25-oz.) chocolate cake mix
- 1 can (16-oz.) chocolate frosting
- 12 jumbo paper cupcake liners
- 12 3 1/2-inch decorated terra cotta flower pots
tools:
- Cookie sheet
- 1 resealable plastic bag
- Flat spatula
- Flower cookie cutter, large
- Jumbo cupcake pan
- Parchment paper
steps for cookie flowers:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line cookie sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Sprinkle the flour onto a piece of parchment paper and roll your dough out to a 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out 14 cookies (a few extra in case of breakage). Transfer cookies to cookie sheet and slip lollipop stick into/underneath each one. (Tip #1: You need the dough to adhere to the lollipop so that it doesn’t slip off when you stand them up.) (TIP #2: Flour your spatula before transferring your dough to minimize scrunching your dough.)
- Bake for approximately 7-9 minutes, or until slightly golden. Remove from the oven, transfer to wire rack immediately and let cool completely.
- Spoon 1/2 cup of the white frosting in a resealable plastic bag with a small corner snipped. Set aside. Divide the remaining frosting into 3 cups and tint one yellow, one orange and one red.
- Ice your cookies carefully using a small butter knife. (Tip #3: For those of you who flood cookies, this would be a great technique here so that you get that smooth finish. And for those of you who haven’t, it’s easy. Read my post from July 11, 2008.)
- Once your base icing has dried completely, pipe a small circle of white frosting in the center of each cookie and decorate with the M&M’S minis.
steps for cupcakes:
- 1. Prepare the cake mix according to package instructions and divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake pans.
- 2. Bake for approximately 23-27 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- 3. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack immediately and allow to cool completely.
- 4. Spread the top of the cupcake with the chocolate frosting and set a cupcake into each flowerpot.
- 5. Carefully insert the flower cookie stick in the center and decorate the cupcake with green M&M minis as leaves.