Decorating cookies with royal icing and edible ink markers can be a great boredom-buster for kids on spring break! These funfetti sugar cookies are flooded with royal icing and decorated by kids with edible ink markers. The Easter bunny will love them!

Decorating Easter Egg Cookies with Kids

**This post originally appeared on my other blog, YinMomYangMom.com.**

Hi, all!  I was really hoping to get this post up a bit sooner, but with my kids being on spring break things have been a little crazy around the YinMom YangMom Allie house!  Like, three play dates in three days crazy!  Makes it a little tough to get any work done, lol!

Well, hopefully it’s not too late for you to knock out this project before the Easter bunny makes her appearance…  Could be a great boredom buster this afternoon!

Decorating Easter Egg Cookies with Kids

BTW, Easter bunny: Him or Her?  I always thought the Easter bunny was a “her,” but I know a lot of people call her a “him”…????  What’s the verdict?  Do I have it all wrong?

Ok, well, I whipped up these cookies last week using my Basic Vanilla Cookie Dough Recipe, which I adore, because it DOES NOT spread or lose its shape while baking.  I did get a comment once from a reader who found her dough to be a little dry, so I want to take a moment to mention, that if you do not roll, cut, and bake it right away, it may dry out a bit, so add less flour, mmmkay?  Or if it just seems to be that kind of day where the humidity is very low, you might want to do the same.  Basically, you’ll know you’ve added enough flour when the dough is not sticky, and has pulled away from the sides of the mixing bowl into a ball.

Also, I experimented a little with making funfetti cookies…!  I added regular ice-cream sprinkles, I call them jimmies, into half the dough, and then put nonpareil sprinkles in the other half.  I kinda liked the nonpareil!  They were easier to cut with the cookie cutter, probably because they are smaller.  And they added a little crunchy bite to the cookies!  But the jimmies worked pretty well too, so feel free to use ’em if ya got ’em!

Fun-fetti Cut Out Cookies

Just cut your cookies with an egg-shaped cutter, bake, and ice them with royal icing.  Here’s my favorite royal icing recipe: Royal Icing.

I make it thicker, and then when I tint it, I add water by the 1/8 teaspoonful, until it gets to the proper consistency (where it will smooth itself out after around 10 seconds).  I pipe it onto the cookies with a pastry bag and a #2 tip, give it a shake/jiggle to help it smooth out, and let it dry and harden for a few hours.

Easter Egg Cookies, Decorated by Kids

Here’s where the magic happens!  Did you know you could buy markers that write with edible ink?  It’s true!  They work just like regular markers, only, duh, edible!  In the past, I’ve used the Wilton kind (they are terrific), and for this project, I purchased the Ateco set, which has more colors and looks a little more Easter-y!  I let my kids just go to town drawing all over the hardened surface of the royal icing…

Decorating Easter Egg Cookies with Kids

…they had a blast!  They came up with all sorts of designs and pictures, and even had fun writing their names and a few messages to the Easter bunny.

Decorating Easter Egg Cookies with Kids

It was a perfect way to get them away from the tv/wii for a couple of hours, not to mention it got them into the Easter spirit!

Decorating Easter Egg Cookies with Kids

Happy Easter!

Now they can’t wait for the Easter bunny to come so she (or he!) can taste their beautiful creations!