The Pioneer Woman Birthday Flowers Party Cookies

Please, please, please tell me that you've seen the party supplies from The Pioneer Woman. Yes? Please tell me that every time you're at Walmart, you check out the party supplies and plan imaginary parties as an excuse to use them. Just me?

So, ever since these hit the shelves, I knew they needed to be "cookie-d." I also knew there was a cake platter, and my Walmart never seemed to keep it in stock. I really wanted that platter when I made the cookies. (Well, I just wanted it, period.) Lo and behold, there it was on the shelf last Sunday - COOKIE TIME! Tutorial below...

Never mind that no one was celebrating a birthday...I made them anyway. This color palette is so fun and so happy and so cheerful, just like Ree.

For the cookies, I used a 3-tier cake cutter (you can find a similar one on Amazon) and a floral cutter (the same one I used here) that I purchased from SemiSweet Designs. You could get a similar look on an oval or rectangle cookie.

There are a LOT of colors here. Mr. E even said, "wow, you normally don't use that many colors on one cookie!" Ha. It's worth the mixing. There are many brands of food coloring, as long as you use gel paste food coloring, you'll be fine.

Here are the colors I used:

• Americolor Turquoise (for the light aqua)
• Chefmaster Royal Blue (for the bottom of the cake)
• Americolor Bright White
• Americolor Red Red mixed with Chefmaster Super Red
• Chefmaster Sunset Orange
• Chefmaster Deep Pink
• Americolor Egg Yellow
• Chefmaster Royal Blue mixed with Navy (for the darker blue)
• Americolor Laurel

Here's a tip for making all of the florals on the cookies...don't sweat using a precise numbered tip, other than a Wilton 1M for the larger red rose on the flower cookie. For the other flowers, use whatever petal and star tips you have in your arsenal. Get the hang of piping them on a plate before going to the cookie if needed.

To make these Pioneer Woman Birthday Flower Cookies, you'll need:

• cut-out sugar cookies
• royal icing
• piping bags
• squeeze bottles
• toothpicks
• icing tips: #2, #1, leaf, petal, 1M, and star

Use a #2 tip to outline the floral cutter and top of the cake in the aqua. Thin the icing with water, a bit at a time, until thinned to the consistency of glue. A ribbon of icing dropped back onto itself should disappear in a count of "one-thousand-one, one-thousand two" or three. Cover the icing with a damp dishtowel and let sit for several minutes. Stir gently to pop large air bubbles that have risen to the top.

Pour the thinned icing into a squeeze bottle; fill the outline with the thinned icing. Use a toothpick to guide to edges and pop any large air bubbles.

Outline the bottom of the cake with the medium blue icing. Thin the blue and some of the white icing as described above. Pour into squeeze bottles. Working 6 cookies at a time, fill the base of the cake with blue icing. Go back to the first cookie filled and add dots of thinned white icing on top. Use big and large dots (if you have a squeeze bottle with an interchangeable tip, use that) in a random pattern. Let the icing set for at least 30 minutes.

Use star tips to add a scalloped border to the cake layers in white and orange icing.

On the floral cookie, use a #1M tip to pipe a large rose in red icing. Switch the tip to a star tip and pipe a smaller rose on the cake cookie.

Use various star and petal tips to pipe the remaining flowers on each cookie.

Pipe the leaves by using a #2 tip for the fronds and a leaf tip for the leaves on each cookie. (Don't you love how they really seem to come together once the leaves are added?)

Use a #2 tip to add dark blue accents to the flowers.

Use #2 tips to pipe candles onto the top of the cake. Use a #1 tip to pipe stripes and dots onto the candles. Use a #2 tip to add yellow flames.

Let the cookies dry uncovered overnight or for 6-8 hours.

What other PW goodies need to be cookie-d?