1. To make the lemon poppy seed cookies, start with the bowl of a stand mixer. Here you will cream together butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.

2. With mixer on medium add eggs and mix until well combined.

3. One cup at a time, add your sifted flour to the butter mixture and mix until combined. Next add in your baking powder.

4. Finally, mix in your lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and poppy seeds.

5. Shape dough into a round disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough for one hour.

6. Remove the chilled lemon poppy seed cookie dough from fridge and place on your rolling surface, lightly dusted with flour, and roll out your chilled dough to ¼” thick.

7. I used a 3” round and Easter bunny shaped cookie cutters to create the shapes for the Easter bunny cookies and floral watercolor cookies.

8. Place Easter bunny cookie cut outs on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and chill in the refrigerator for an additional 30 minutes.

9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and remove chilled cookies. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until edges are light golden brown. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.

Royal Icing

1. To make the lemon poppy seed cookie frosting; In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites on medium until they become frothy.

2. Turn your mixer up to medium high and slowly begin to add your powdered sugar.
3. Next, add your vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
4. Turn your mixer to high, and whisk the icing until you have a smooth a glossy icing, about 10 minutes. You’ll know when your icing is perfect when a ribbon of the icing takes around 10 seconds to disperse back into the mixture.
5. If your icing becomes too thick or too thin you can add a small amount of water or powdered sugar at a time to get the consistency you need.

6. Add icing to a piping bag fitted with a #3 decorating tip to get the perfect watercolor cookie design you want, and create details to your Easter bunny cookies as well.