My Little Pony Cookies

When LadyBug requested a My Little Pony-themed birthday, I thought nothing of it. How hard can it be to find My Little Pony party decor? Turns out that it’s not quite as easy as I would have liked. Sure, there were plates and cups, but the other details are harder to come by. I spent a long time pondering how to make a My Little Pony cake. In the end, I was inspired by the adorable Cinco de Mayo Piñata Cookies from SheKnows. My one big tip is to assemble these cookies at the last possible minute. The cotton candy is finicky and shrivels up with moisture or humidity.

Materials:

• Your favorite sugar cookie recipe or mix – choose one that’s designed for cut-out cookies
• Gel food coloring (regular food coloring can change the consistency of the dough) – I used the Wilton Icing Colors, but there are some readily available in the supermarket
• Horse/Pony Cookie Cutter – I used the horse from the Wilton Mini Noah’s Ark Metal Cookie Cutter set. The cutters are about 1 1/2″, which is just the right size for sitting on a cupcake!
• Cotton candy – you can buy this in a bag or plastic container. I got mine at A.C. Moore.
• Colorful sprinkles in cute shapes (butterflies, flowers, etc.) and other embellishments as desired. My favorite for this project are the Wilton Flowerful Medley sprinkles.

Step 1:

Make the cookies. I was in a hurry, so I used a package sugar cookie mix. Separate evenly into sections if you want different color ponies. Color the dough with the food coloring (a little goes a long way) and blend well. I went with pink and purple, LadyBug’s favorite colors. Chill your cookie dough for several hours or over night if you can. It’s easier to work with.

Step 2:

Roll out the cookie dough as directed in the recipe, about 1/8-1/4″. Cut out twice as many cookies as you need, doing half with each side of the cookie cutter so you have two sides for the horse. You have two options for cutting out the cookies. If you go the traditional route of cutting out the cookies in advance, you’ll probably need to recut them when they come out of the oven (beware, the cutter will get very hot!) in order to get the clear horse shape. Instead, I cut the dough into rough squares that would hold several cutouts. I baked those and cut the horses out of the cooked shapes. It saved me a lot of time. Just make sure to remove the excess gently, but before the cookies cool and become crispy. Let the cookies cool on a rack.

Step 2:

Choose your favorite frosting (creamy works better than whipped, but either is fine), separate it out as you did the dough and tint to get roughly the same shade. If you’ll be making cupcakes as well, make sure you have enough frosting tinted to get a matched shade if that’s what you’re going for. Put a dab of frosting on the center of each bottom cookie. I smeared the frosting, but it wreaked havoc on the cotton candy.

Step 3:

Pull out small bits of cotton candy and carefully shape to be the tail and mane of the pony. If you touch the candy too much, it will shrivel. I bunched up one side to go inside the cookie and let the other stay fluffy. Lay it on the cookie, but try to avoid touching the frosting, as the moisture will ruin the fluffiness.

Step 4:

You can add a bit of frosting to the feet or wherever there’s no cotton candy. Place the top cookie on and press firmly together. Fluff the tail and mane with a toothpick if needed.

Step 5:

Take one sprinkle, place a bit of frosting on it using a toothpick and place it on the pony’s rump for the “Cutie Mark.”

Isn’t this super cute? I stopped here, but you can add eyes, glitter or other embellishments. If you’ve got an artistic hand, you can use the edible markers to draw on the Cutie Marks and other designs.

Disclosure: Although I recommend several Wilton products, I have no ties with the brand. These are simply the tools I had on hand for this project. This post does contain affiliate links, however.