Homemade Animal Cookies

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, little bunnies! My sister got married on July 19th, so as you could imagine, life has been pretty crazy! I finally got a few minutes to myself to relax and catch up on emails after our out-of-town guests had returned home and the newlyweds left for their honeymoon!

I want to introduce you all to Erin! Erin is one of my friends, and also my spin buddy at Full Psycle! She loves baking and creates the best low-ingredient desserts on her blog (3 ingredient red velvet cookies? I meannnnn). I am one lucky duck and get to taste test when she brings her creations to spin! She so totally spoils me!

I love that she balances baking, healthy eating, and exercising. She loves green juice, and salads, but she also loves the occasional sweet treat. She’s seriously adorable and such an amazing person with mad style.

Erin and I had a fun girls’ day and made these adorable bunny ‘circus’ animal cookies!

I bought this adorable bunny cookie cutter from our favorite store Daiso! It’s a Japanese dollar store, so this cookie cutter was only $1.50 in store!

Instead of using artificial food coloring to dye our frosting pink, we used small amount of beet juice from canned beets!

Homemade Animal Cookies
{with vegan options}

1 ½ cups White Flour (or gluten free alternative)
½ cup Sugar
¼ tsp salt
½ cup Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1 egg (or egg replacer for vegan alternative)
½ tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients (sugar, flour, salt) in one bowl. In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients (earth balance, egg, and vanilla) and beat using a hand mixer until well mixed. Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet mixture while beating with a hand mixer until dough has been formed. Place the dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes until dough hardens. Roll out dough with a rolling pin in between parchment paper (if the dough seems too sticky to roll out, add an extra tablespoon or two of flour). Cut desired shapes with cookie cutters until all the dough has been used. Bake for 5 minutes until lightly golden brown.

For the frosting:
Royal Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla soy milk (or almond milk – creamer is best)
¼ tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients with a small whisk. Divide frosting evenly into two separate bowls. Use 1/4 – 1/2 tsp of beet juice in one half of the frosting to give a light pink color.

Vegan option: Melt vegan white chocolate chips. Color half of the chocolate chips with about 1/4 – 1/2 tsp of beet juice for pink coloring.