Flower Cookie Bouquet

To celebrate the official beginning of spring, I made a cookie bouquet centerpiece/story time snack (at least I hope it survives as a centerpiece until story time, tonight).

The cookies are quick, and simple to make.

Divide one batch of sugar cookie dough into seven parts. In addition to brown centers, I wanted flowers in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, to go with Lois Ehlert's Planting a Rainbow, our story for tonight. But, if you only want one, or two colors, then divide the dough accordingly.

Color the dough for the petals, and flower centers. I added a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder to the dough, for the brown, flower centers, instead of food coloring, for additional flavor.

Roll the dough into 1/2 inch balls.

Place colored balls around the centers, to form flowers, on a greased cookie sheet. Press them together a little, so they stick to each other.

Add a sucker, or Popsicle stick, pushing it through the dough into the center of the flower. These are also very pretty piled together on a plate, if you don't want to add sticks.

Bake as normal for sugar cookies (350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes).

Remove them from the pan, with a wide spatula, and let them cool completely, before arranging them into a bouquet.

I stood mine in a full sugar dish, covered in plastic wrap.

For a little extra touch of spring, I used some of the left over dough to make a caterpillar, with tiny bits of the chocolate dough for an eye, and mouth. He should make a nice treat for the man of the house, while the little ones are munching down their flowers snacks, at story time tonight.

It's great to be a homeschooler.