DIY "Moss" Bunny Cookies

Sift four cups of flower, 1/3 cup of corn starch and half a teaspoon of salt. Blend the ingredients with a whisk.

In a stand mixer, mix one cup of unsalted butter and one cup of sugar on medium speed for about five minutes.

Add two eggs one at a time and mix. Then add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Mix in the dry ingredients, adding about a third at a time to avoid having a cloud of flour cover your kitchen. The flour mixture will disappear and the dough will come together into one buttery lump.

Wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to soften slightly. Spread some flour on your work surface as well as your rolling pin, and flatten the dough to about a quarter inch.

With a bunny cookie cutter, cut out the shapes.

Place cookies on a silicone mat on a cookie sheet. Bake according to the instructions in your recipe. I baked mine for 12 minutes at 375° F. Let cool.

Place about 10 graham crackers in a zip lock bag. Crush them with a rolling pin until they resemble sand. If you prefer, you can also pulverize them in a food processor.

To mimic the variegated look of moss, I selected two different shades of green gel food coloring. The gel is thick and difficult to mix in with the graham cracker crumbs, so stir about a half teaspoon of coloring with a tablespoon of vodka to make it more liquid. Don't worry, the alcohol will dissipate.

Pour one of the shades of green food coloring into the zip lock bag with the graham cracker crumbs. Mix it all around, squeezing the bag from the outside. Add more dye if necessary to reach the color you want. Notice how some of the larger crumbs do not absorb the dye. These brown bits give the fake moss a realistic look.

Royal icing will be the glue that holds the graham cracker moss to the cookies. The great thing about royal icing is that it dries very hard, so your moss isn't going anywhere. If you don't use store-bought, you can mix four cups of confectioner's sugar, three tablespoons of meringue powder and five tablespoons of warm water in a stand mixer for about eight minutes. The icing will be thick with stiff peaks.

Using the same two shades of green food coloring as we used for the graham crackers, dye the royal icing, mixing a few drops at a time until you achieve the desired green. I recommend using a knife to stir the icing as we'll use it later to test the consistency.

Now we'll need to thin the royal icing so it can flood, i.e., cover the cookies. Stir in a half teaspoon of water at a time until the icing has the consistency of a thick milkshake. For this project, I made what is called "20 second icing," meaning that when you run the knife across the bowl of icing, the line you created with the knife will disappear in 20 seconds. Pour the royal icing into a squeeze bottle, either by spooning it in or with a funnel.

Our bunnies may look rustic covered with moss, but they are very natty wearing their bow ties. To make the bow ties, start by rolling a piece of white fondant between two sheets of parchment paper until it is very thin.

Decorate the bow ties with polka dots using candy decorating pens. A set of pens comes in different colors so you can also vary the color of the dots.

Royal icing is usually applied to cookies in two steps — first with a thicker icing around the edge, and then with a runnier icing to flood the middle. I decided to keep the outline and inside icing the same consistency, as I wanted them both equally liquid to hold on to the moss. Squeeze a line of royal icing around the perimeter of the cookie. Do not go all the way to the edge. I leave about an eighth of an inch all around.

Sprinkle the green graham cracker crumbs over the cookie. I like to completely cover the cookie with the crumbs to make sure the moss goes to the edges. Gently press down on the crumbs so they get locked into the royal icing.

The texture of the graham cracker crumbs makes it difficult for embellishments like our bow ties to adhere. The secret is edible adhesive, which you can find in the baking aisle at crafts stores. With a clean brush, apply a layer of edible adhesive to the back of each bow tie.