Mother's Day flower bouquet

Many moons ago I came across this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and have wanted to try it ever since. I decided to try to use the recipe to make a cookie bouquet for the mom of the fmaily I work for. I may or may not have eaten half of the batch myself.... (not all in one day). Just the ones that didn't stay on the sticks...

Brownie Roll-out Cookies They're like chocolate sugar cookies. To DIE for... I'm suggesting that we swap these out for regular sugar cookies for Christmas plates, they're that good.)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup lightly salted butter, softened (Deb note: I don’t really see “lightly salted” much these days, so I used one stick salted, one stick unsalted)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter.1/4" thick plus. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (secret trick: roll the cookies out with excess cocoa powder rather than flower to keep the cookies brown.) This is the part where I used wooden skewers to make them flowers.

Can we please talk about how cute this kid is? I <3 him already!

Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

At this point you can eat the cookies as they are. You could sprinkle with powdered sugar, or you could frost them with some good old butter cream frosting.

The Decorators:

And here are the decorator's final products

Add a dollar store pot, some floral foam, some crumpled tissue paper and a ribbon. Voila!

I think, if I were a mom, I would be very happy with coming downstairs to one of these.

One for my boss, one for the neighbor (who is amazing)