3-D stacked carrot cookies

Source: http://www.sheknows.com – by Sandra Denneler

Deliciously sweet veggies Stacked carrot cookies The kids won’t mind eating their veggies with these sweet carrot cookies. They’re a perfect springtime Easter treat. Here’s a tasty treat for your Easter table. Any bunny would have fun creating these simple, stacked carrot cookies, complete with edible green tops! 3-D stacked carrot cookie recipe Yields approximately 15 assembled cookies Ingredients: 1 box carrot cake mix 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup shortening or butter 3 tablespoons evaporated milk 2 teaspoons vanilla Orange food coloring Cream cheese frosting (or frosting of your choice) Edible Easter grass (available in the Easter candy aisle) Directions: 1 Mix cookie batter Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, combine carrot cake mix, vegetable oil, shortening (or butter), evaporated milk and vanilla and mix together on high until smooth. Add orange food coloring to achieve desired color. Mix until incorporated. 2 Pipe cookies Pour the batter into a piping bag with a 1/4-inch round tip. Pipe small-to-large circles of batter, ranging in size from 1/2 to 2 inches, onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. (Each carrot will use 9- 10 cookies.) 3 Make peaks for the bottom of the carrots Give your smallest cookie a peak since it will be the bottom of the carrot. 4 Bake and cut out largest cookies Bake for 8-10 minutes. Immediately cut a 1/2-inch circle out of the center of the largest cookies. 5 Cool Allow the cookies to cool before removing them from the parchment paper. 6 Frost bottoms of cookies Tint the cream cheese frosting (or frosting of your choice) by mixing in orange food coloring to achieve desired color. Turn cookies upside down and align them in stacking order from largest to smallest. Put frosting in a piping bag and frost the bottoms of each cookie, except for the last one. 7 Stack into carrot shapes Starting with the largest cookie, begin stacking. Put assembled carrot cookies in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set the frosting and help them keep their shape.   8 Cut edible grass To add the grassy tops, cut small bunches from edible grass. 9 Add grassy tops Pipe frosting in the top cookie holes. Insert grass into frosted holes. Arrange the grass and trim with scissors to your liking. 10 Eat!         Enjoy your deliciously sweet carrots!