My sister had a bunny rabbit themed baby shower, so I decided to make these adorable rabbit cookies for the dessert table. And yes, I also made a matching bunny cake and bunny cupcakes. Go big or go home, right?!

These soft-batch cookies are frosted vanilla buttercream, and will totally knock your socks off. They’re not too sweet on their own, which makes them the perfect base for my sweet buttercream frosting.

The Secret Ingredient(s) in These Rabbit Buttercream Cookies

What gives these buttercream cookies that unique texture and taste? We can thank a bit of cream cheese and cornstarch for making these cookies so great.

Both help the cookies bake up soft so they’re still chewy once they’re baked and have cooled.

Now I know cream cheese is probably not an ingredient you’d expect to find in a cookie recipe. But trust me, it makes all the difference.

It also brightens the color of the cookies by giving them a lighter color. I love this, because it really helps the highlight the buttercream once the cookies are frosted.

And the cornstarch? It helps soften cookies by softening the proteins in the all purpose flour.

The end result is almost like you’re using cake flour in this recipe! It creates a super tender, melt-in-your-mouth cookie.

Making Sure Your Bunny Rabbit Cookies Are Soft & Fluffy

While I love getting caught up in the decoration of my desserts, it’s super important that my recipes are just as delicious.

When I eat a cookie like this I want it to be thick, soft and buttery.

Now, this isn’t the easiest thing to accomplish. Even if you have the best sugar cookie recipe, so much comes down to the technique you use and how you make the cookie dough.

The first thing to keep in mind is measuring the right amount of flour. Some home bakers really pack flour into their measuring cup. Unfortunately this can cause a person to add a lot more flour to a recipe than it calls for.

I like to use a kitchen scale to be exact, but you can also fluff your flour up in your bag with a spoon, then add spoonfuls into a measuring cup and level it off with a knife.

It’s also important that you chill your dough and liberally flour your counter and cookie cutters.

This makes the dough so much easier to roll out and cut.

The final and absolutely imperative part of this recipe is the double chill. This recipe chills the dough before it’s rolled out, and one more time once the cookies are cut out.

However, the dough usually warms to room temperature once I’m done cutting out my cookies.

I pop the tray of cut cookies into the freezer for about 10 minutes before baking them. The second chill ensures the cookies are still cold when they go into the oven. This really helps them keep their shape.

The Buttercream Frosting

Now onto my favorite part, the buttercream frosting. These bunny rabbit cookies are decorated with my American buttercream.

While this frosting is amazing for making cakes, it also is fantastic for cookies! I add a bit more heavy cream to make it easy to pipe with.

An added bonus this type of frosting hardens! American buttercream crusts as it sits and is exposed to air. It might sound creepy, but it’s a totally natural reaction caused by the high sugar content in the frosting.

Making frosting from scratch can be intimidating the first time, but I promise once you try it you’ll never go back to canned or premade frosting.

My buttercream frosting for cookies only uses 5 ingredients and comes together in about 5 minutes. It doesn’t get easier than that!!

You can also easily add in an additional teaspoon or two of extract to make your favorite flavors.

Another great thing about my buttercream recipe? It can be made in advance and keeps in the fridge for up to a month!

I love prepping things in advance so that I don’t have to make everything in one day. It makes the decoration process so much easier and more enjoyable.

Decorating these Rabbit Cookies

Now it’s time to discuss my favorite part, decorating these cookies!

If we’re going to spend a bunch of time baking these rabbit cookies from scratch, we should take a little extra time to make them look as cute as possible!

All you need are some piping bags and a bit of gel food coloring. This recipe makes quite a few cookies so you can invite your friends or kids into the kitchen with you and have some fun.

Use white, pink, and black buttercream to create each rabbit’s face. Start by piping white buttercream on top of a cookie.

Dunk the frosted cookie in white sanding sugar, gently tapping it to help flatten out the frosting and fully cover the frosting in sanding sugar.

Pipe a small pink heart in the center of the cookie, and pipe a pink line in the center of each ear. Use the black buttercream to pipe two circle on the sides of the nose to be the bunny’s eyes.

Repeat with the remaining cookies, then enjoy!

Tips for Making the Best Rabbit Cookies:

• Liberally flour your counter before you roll out your cookie dough and move it around while you roll and cut your cookies.
• Also flour your cookie cutters before each cut! It helps the dough easily pop out of the cutter and helps the cookies keep their shape.
• Really cream together the butter, cream cheese and granulated sugar for a couple minutes in the first step of this recipe. It helps incorporate air into the dough which makes fluffy and soft cookies.
• Don’t over-mix your cookie dough once you add in the flour! It can over-work the gluten and result in tough and dense cookies
• Roll your cookie dough out to a consistent thickness of 1/3 inch. If some are thicker or thinner than others, they may over or under bake in the oven.
• Chill your cookie dough. It helps prevent your cookies from spreading while they bake and helps them bake up soft and chewy.
• Don’t over bake your cookies. Err of the side of under-baking your cookies and remember that the cookies continue to bake for a few minutes once they’re out of the oven and firm up as they cool.
• Wait to pipe on the eyes until right before you plan to serve the cookies. The black frosting can sometimes bleed into the sprinkles if the cookies have been chilled or if you live in a humid environment.

Making these Bunny Cookies in Advance and Storage Tips

You can store frosted cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 days at room temperature or for up to a 5 days in the fridge.

If you want to stack the cookies on top of one another, I recommend adding a layer of parchment paper between them.

This cookie dough can also be frozen for up to 1 month if wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored in an airtight container. I like to move the cookie dough to the fridge the night before I plan to roll it out and bake the cookies.

Baked, unfrosted cookies can also be frozen! These cookies last for up to a month if frozen in an airtight container. I recommend waiting to frost them until they’ve thawed to room temperature.

Move them to the fridge the day before you plan to eat them, then let them sit out at room temperature for a few hours before frosting them.

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Let Me Know What You Think!

If you try this recipe for rabbit cookies I’d love to hear what you think of it! Please leave a rating and let me know your thoughts by sharing a comment below.