Lollipop Cookie Bouquets Recipe

Directions:

1. For the cookies, cream shortening and sugar in a bowl. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut out 16 shapes with cookie cutters dipped in flour (six flowers, six hearts, two baseball players or gingerbread men and two 2-1/4-in. rounds for the baseball). Place the cardboard templates for the baseball cap and glove onto the dough and cut around them with a sharp knife, making two caps and two gloves.
3. Place five cookies each on two ungreased baking sheets. Place a wooden stick on top of each cookie, leaving 3 in. extending for the handle. Top each cookie with the same-shaped cutout. Press edges gently to seal cookies together.
4. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are golden brown. Cool on wire racks, propping up each stick so that is parallel to the rack.
5. For the frosting, cream butter and confectioners' sugar in a bowl. Beat in the milk and vanilla until smooth. Place 1/4 cup of frosting each into four small bowls. With paste food coloring, tint one bowl yellow, one pink and one blue; leave one white. Place 1 tablespoon of frosting each into four custard cups. Tint one cup dark brown, one red, one light brown and one green.
6. For mother's lollipop bouquet, use yellow, pink and blue frosting to frost the heart and flower cookies. Insert round tip into a pastry or plastic bag; fill the bag with green frosting. Outline flower cookies and add dots in center.
7. Add Mom to one heart cookie. Insert star tip into a pastry or plastic bag; fill bag with white frosting. Pipe a star-shaped outline onto heart cookies. Place cookies on waxed paper to harden.
8. Cut a piece of florist foam the size of the wicker basket. Push foam into basket to fit tightly. Insert flower and heart lollipops into foam. Arrange Easter grass over foam.
9. For father's lollipop bouquet, frost the baseball, baseball cap (excluding the brim) and the player's uniform white. Insert round tip into a pastry or plastic bag; fill bag with red frosting. Pipe lines on the cap and outline the player's uniform; add #1 Dad on uniform. Pipe a smile on the player's face, strips on the player's pants and stick marks on the baseball. Frost the brim of the baseball cap red and the baseball glove light brown. Insert round tip into a pastry or plastic bag; fill the bag with dark brown frosting. Pipe stitch marks on the glove. Outline the glove and pipe eyes and hair on the player.
10. Cut a pieces of florist's foam to fit inside the coffee mug. Push the foam into the mug to fit tightly. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over the foam. Insert baseball player, cap, glove and baseball cookie lollipops into foam. Tuck the blue tissue paper around the cookies. Yield: 10 lollipop cookies.