Recipe: Red Panda Cookies

The traditional cake and candles has been replaced by something much cuter this year: red panda cookies! I challenged myself to find a red panda cookie cutter (a repurposed cat head cookie cutter) and a simple way to decorate dozens of treats (Red Panda Network logo). For what purpose? Building awareness for red pandas, of course!

If you haven't heard, I pledged my birthday to the Red Panda Network and wanted to do something special to celebrate. After all, it's not every birthday that you turn a quarter of a century old! I can't wait to share these with my coworkers tomorrow and hope they enjoy having a special treat on an otherwise ordinary Tuesday. Stay tuned for an update and read on for the recipe!

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Recipe:
1 box Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Dreams sugar cookie mix
1 box Dr. Oetker organic vanilla icing mix
1 box food coloring (you'll need red, yellow, and green)
Vegan dark chocolate candies (I used pure chocolate that came in a dome shape; these were near the bulk bins at Whole Foods)

Cookies:
1. Prepare ingredients for sugar cookie mix.
2. Add food coloring to milk for sugar cookie mix. For one box, try 32 drops red, 8 drops yellow, and 4 drops green.
3. Prepare sugar cookie dough per box directions.
4. Roll out dough to 1/4" thickness using a rolling pin.
5. Cut out red panda shapes using a cat head cookie cutter.
6. Bake cookies (14 min at 325°).
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until dough is all cooked.

Decorations:
1. Prepare vanilla icing, adding in margarine and milk until it reaches a thick (not runny) frosting consistency.
2. Scoop frosting into a decorating tube. Alternatively, cut off the corner of a thick resealable food bag and insert a decorating tip.
3. Draw ears, eyebrows, stripes, and a snout onto the cookies with the frosting.
4. Insert one chocolate onto the snout as a nose, and "glue" on eyes with a small amount of frosting.
5. Carefully dot frosting in the eyes to bring your panda to life.
Note: Additional tools that may be useful include a knife, chopsticks, or toothpicks.

Special thanks to Jesse for helping with decorating and my mother for her creative ideas!



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