Chocolate Bunny Cookies

Has your house been overrun with bunnies yet?

We certainly have but these chocolatey goodies

didn't stay around long.

(Ok, there is one vanilla one hiding in with

it's siblings!)

I have been working on writing my dad's history

and one thing he would laugh about was that

he would always bite the ears off his sister's

chocolate bunny that she was trying to save.

So when I brought this platter of cute bunnies

to my grandkids and my son immediately picked

one up and said he was going to bite the ears

off, it reminded me of my dad.  

I made them both in chocolate and vanilla and

I have to say I am in love with the chocolate sugar

cookies.

This time I made my sugar cookies with a cake mix

using Betty Crocker's Triple Chocolate Chip Cake Mix.

I didn't know if the chocolate chips would be a problem

in a rolled sugar cookie, but they were fine and the

flavor is so chocolatey.  Combine that with a little

almond flavoring in the royal frosting and this is

a super yummy cookie.  I like the cake mix cookies when

I do royal frosting because they are so sweet and the

frosting is not so it balances out to a great tasting,

not just beautiful looking cookie.  

You can imagine they were a hit with the kiddies.  They

liked the candy eggs too.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

1 box Chocolate Cake Mix

1 large egg

1/2 C. butter melted

Mix the above ingredients together with the

paddle attachment until thoroughly mixed.  Let

the batter cool about 10 minutes since the butter

was melted.

Roll cookies out on parchment paper and transfer

to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  You don't have

to use any flour to roll it out on parchment paper and

it peels off easily by lifting the paper from the corner.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes or until the tops look

dry.  I don't like my sugar cookies brown.  Let cool

on the pan until you can easily handle them.

Royal Frosting

1 C. water

5 T. meringue powder

Mix this together in a large mixing bowl until no lumps are there.

Add

2 tsp. almond flavoring

1 tsp. cream of tartar

2 lb. powdered sugar (sift if lumpy)

With the paddle attachment, start on low mixing this together

and turn up to medium speed and mix for 10 minutes.  Yes,

10 minutes.  It will thicken and look like marshmallow. 

You may have to thin this to make it flow.  Add 1 T. water at

a time.  When you draw a spoon through the frosting, the line should

disappear in about 10 seconds.  If not, add the water and stir.

Place in small bowls and color if desired.  I prefer the bottles for

the cookies and bags for adding detail like the nose.  The eyes

were dragees.

decorating bag or decorating bottle.  

Flood with royal frosting by outlining the cookie and

then filling in with the frosting.  Let harden or place

in a food dehydrator for about one hour to harden 

enough to write on with an edible marker.  I used

Americolor's black marker.

(I start with a little more water than normal

so I don't have to thin it so much and it works 

well.)

These come together so quickly and are

so fun to make.

They will be hopping over to

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