Ladybug Larva Cookies

I'm sure you knew these were in the works. I really just couldn't resist. If you're squeamish, these probably won't be for you (I know this, because the Man of the House is squeamish). But really, we've made caterpillar cookies, and caterpillars are just butterfly larvae. And, the children loved them.

So, to make a dozen ladybug larva cookies, start with a half a batch of sugar cookie dough. Add two tablespoons of baker's cocoa to one half, and a few drops of red and orange food coloring to the other, to make it orange. If you have orange extract, or even some orange juice, or better yet, frozen orange concentrate, you might want to use it, instead of the vanilla extract.


Divide the orange dough into six, equal portions (I only show five, so pretend there are six in the picture), and roll them into fat cigar shapes).


Pull off a small blob chocolate dough, less than half the size of a normal cookie's worth, and set aside. Then, divide the rest of the chocolate dough into six equal portions.


Roll the chocolate portions out flat, into rough ovals, or rectangles...


...to wrap around the orange dough.


Slice the "cigars" in half...


...and then into pieces.


Knock the middle pieces over on their sides, with the chocolate dough all facing the same way as the first piece.


Squish them together, into a larva-type body.


Use the reserved chocolate dough, to roll little bits for spots, and stripes, to finish off the larva look (ours were "just hatched" larva, so they didn't have too much detail).

Bake for 14 minutes, on a greased cookie sheet, in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven.


They're not exact, but close enough for us.



It's great to be a homeschooler.