These cookies are made for Mom — a delightful mix of royal-iced letters and buttercream flowers. They combine the crisp finish of decorated sugar cookies with soft, blooming buttercream details. I’m really happy with how they turned out and I think my mom will love them, too.
I have individual letter cutters, but they were larger than I wanted. So I made a compact “MOM” template where the “O” overlaps the two “M”s to keep everything in a neat rectangular shape.
If you want to recreate these, print the MOM cookie template and use it as your guide.
For the sugar cookies and royal icing I used my favorite decorated-cookie recipe. It makes sturdy, flavorful cookies that hold their shape well when decorated.
Roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick before cutting.
- Print and trim the rectangular MOM shape from your template.
- Use a large, non-serrated knife to cut the rectangle from the rolled dough.
- After cutting the dough rectangles, use scissors to cut the letters from the paper template.
- With a non-serrated knife, remove dough from the rectangles to match the letter shapes on the template.
- If you plan to add buttercream flowers, leave the center of the O intact when cutting so you have a base for the flower.
Place each rectangle several inches apart on a parchment-lined sheet while cutting so they won’t interfere with one another when transferring to the oven.
Use leftover dough to cut two small leaves per cookie. A small teardrop cutter works well, but you can also hand-cut small triangles. The leaves will be thinner than the letters, so roll their dough to about 1/8 inch thick.
When the cookies are baked and cooled, pipe the Ms with royal icing. I used a consistency between outline and flood for smooth coverage.
My Ms weren’t perfectly straight, so I added an outline in a contrasting color with a #2 tip to give the letters cleaner edges and mask any imperfections.
Tip: Pipe the O with royal icing as well for added stability if you’ll be adding buttercream flowers. Buttercream can add moisture that slightly weakens the cookie, so either add a thin royal-iced layer under the buttercream or transfer the cookies with a spatula instead of picking them up by a single letter.
I tinted the royal icing a light green and used the same shade to pipe leaves.
Let the royal icing dry completely — overnight is best — before adding buttercream decorations. Use a simple buttercream recipe for the flowers; a small batch will make enough for about ten cookie flowers.
To pipe the buttercream flower, fit a piping bag with a #127 Wilton tip and hold the wider end at the bottom. Pipe a circular base and then continue circling inward, creating small ruffles as you overlap each layer toward the center.
Finish the center with small yellow dots of buttercream to mimic a flower’s center.
Gently insert the leaf cookies on either side of the flower. You can lift petals slightly with a toothpick to tuck the leaves underneath, or break off and gently press the leaf bases into the buttercream to secure them.
The result is delicate and charming.
Originally I considered piping messages directly on the Ms, but I was worried about making mistakes. Instead, the night before I piped small white royal-icing rectangles on wax paper, using a drawn guide beneath to write messages. This method lets you practice and redo notes without risking the cookies themselves. When the flowers are finished, attach the little cards to the cookies with leftover royal icing or a dab of buttercream.
Quick recap:
- Print and use the MOM template for consistent shapes.
- Bake sturdy sugar cookies and decorate with royal icing on day one.
- Divide and tint the royal icing into three colors: letters, outlines/leaves, and small note rectangles.
- Save leftover royal icing to glue the notes in place on day two.
- Once dry, make and tint buttercream for the petals and centers, then pipe the flowers.
- Write short messages on the royal-icing cards with an edible pen and attach them to the cookies.
You can personalize messages however you like — playful or heartfelt lines both work. I kept my message simple: “Love You Mom!”
I truly do. I hope you enjoy making these cookies for someone special.