Perhaps one day I’ll be the “you should make this” type of blogger; the kind who has all their holiday treats prepped, photographed and blogged in the week or two leading up to an event. This is so not me (obviously) as I’m usually posting my holiday baking projects after the fact. So I guess I’m the “here’s what I made” type of blogger, and that’s okay with me.

So with that in mind, here’s what I made for Easter this year. As soon as I saw these cookies on Pennies on a Platter, I was all over them. They’re the same sugar cookies I made at Christmas – soft and not too sweet – with green buttercream piped on and chocolate eggs on top. Which ones do you think look the best?

I had Cadbury Mini-Eggs (middle), knock-off Life Brand Mini Eggs from Shoppers (top), and Peanut M&Ms (bottom). I think I like the knock-offs the best because they have the cute little speckles. Danielle made these too, and she used her leftover icing and eggs to decorate vanilla cupcakes the same way. So cute – I’ll do that next year.

For my family’s Easter dinner dessert I also brought the Peanut Butter Cake from the new Joy the Baker cookbook, with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting. You can see that and Dani’s cupcakes over on our Baking the Book page, where we’re posting pictures from everything we make in Joy’s book.

Easter Nest Sugar Cookies

Source: Idea from Pennies on a Platter, cookies from Annie’s Eats, buttercream (my fave) from Canadian Living magazine.

Yield: 36 mini cookies

Ingredients

Cookies

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temperature

3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cups flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Buttercream

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

2 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/4 cup whipping cream

1 tsp clear vanilla extract (if you don’t have it, just use regular)

+ green food colouring (Americolor is the bomb)

+ chocolate Easter eggs of your choice!

Directions

1. For cookies, preheat the oven to 350 and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about two minutes or so. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix again. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix in until incorporated and everything is smooth. Cover and chill the dough for an hour.
3. When ready to bake, roll the dough into small balls and place on the cookie sheets. Flatten each slightly with your fingertips or the bottom of a glass. The cookies won’t spread or puff too much, so don’t flatten too much. Bake for 8 minutes; the cookies won’t even brown. Let cool completely.
4. For icing, whip the butter until fluffy, then add the sugar, cream and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add as much food colouring as you like. Add the buttercream to a piping bag with a small star tip, and pipe onto the cookies in little bursts. Pop a few eggs into your mouth on top of each cookie and you’re done!