These Lion Face Cookies are such fun to make with your kids! They will love putting on the eyes and noses and ears 🙂 They’d also be great for a jungle or safari birthday party!
Start with a basic sugar cookie recipe. You can use your favorite cutout recipe or even use pre-made refrigerated sugar cookie dough. I used this Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs recipe from food.com.
While your cookies are cooling, prepare this simple Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup shortening
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 8 cups powdered sugar
- 4 Tbs. milk
- Beat butter and shortening with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Beat in vanilla.
- Gradually add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.
- Gradually add milk; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
Color your frosting 1/2 yellow, 1/4 orange, 1/8 brown, and leave 1/8 white.
Lay out all the cookies and frost them all yellow.
Pipe two white dots on for the eyes.
Push an upside down chocolate chip into the white dots.
Place a mini Nutter Butter cookie half for the nose area. (I got these at Walmart in small cups near the checkout.)
Pipe a little dot of frosting on the nutter butter and “glue” the brown M&M nose on.
Using the brown frosting, pipe a little smile on.
Now put the yellow and orange frosting in a piping bag, yellow on one side, orange on the other. That will make the frosting come out swirly yellow and orange. Pipe the mane around the lion face. {OR – check out this snazzy dual color icing bag!}
Press two cheerios in for the ears.
And that’s it – completed Lion Face Cookies!