Spring Sugar Cookie Tutorial – Colorful Hummingbird Decorated Cookies

Hummingbirds symbolize happiness and joy so I am here to show you how to make hummingbird decorated cookies with delicious buttercream frosting.

These hummingbird sugar cookies are colorful, perfect for spring, and kid-friendly.

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Part 1: Gathering the Supplies for Hummingbird Decorated Cookies

To decorate these hummingbird sugar cookies, you will want to gather:

• 5 Icing bags
• 5 Couplers (or purchase 5 Wilton #4 tips instead of just one to share among couplers/icing bags)
• One Wilton #4 tip – buy this at a bake supply store or purchase this kit I use for almost every tutorial
• Hummingbird cookie cutter
• Gel food dye for buttercream frosting in purple, royal blue, teal, pink, and lime green (I mixed a small amount of Kelly Green with mostly Lemon Yellow to create lime green)
• Palette knife or butter knife
• Ingredients for a crusting buttercream, find my crusting buttercream icing recipe here
• Ingredients for sugar cookie dough, find my no spread sugar cookies recipe here
• Optional – Fancy Sprinkles Prism Powder 

Part 2: Baking the Cookies and Setting up Your Icing Bags

1. Roll, cut out, and bake your sugar cookies according to the recipe. You will be able to make about 40 sugar cookies with the recipe and cookie cutter linked above. Remember, these are smaller cookies because hummingbirds are small birds.
2. Make your buttercream icing and separate it into five bowls:
   • Each bowl will contain roughly equal amounts of buttercream
   • Mix one bowl royal blue, one teal, one pink, one purple, and one lime green.
   • ***Remember, your colors will develop over time.
3. Set up your icing bags as follows:
   • If using couplers: place couplers into each of the icing bags and fill them with the buttercream, one color per bag of course. You don’t need to attach the tips yet.
   • If using 5 Wilton #4 tips, place each tip into each icing bag and fill with buttercream, one color per bag.

Part 3: Making the Buttercream Hummingbird Decorated Cookies

Check out the video above, especially to see how to create the wing look with buttercream. Then, check out the photo series below when you are ready to decorate.

1. Choose the color(s) you want for the hummingbird wings & tail feathers. Put a small amount of frosting in those areas and smooth it with the palette knife.
2. To create the feathers in the wings, outline the top of the top wing and the left side of it. Then, use the palette knife to pull some of the frosting out to the right, while also dipping the palette knife down a bit to create a curved bottom. *The curved bottom will be covered up on the top wing but it is good practice for the bottom wing & tail.
3. Draw vertical lines, one at a time, and repeat the above step, using the palette knife to form the feather.
4. Choose the body color(s) and fill in that area next, including the beak but not the hummingbird tail.
5. Smooth over the body/beak with the palette knife, blending colors together if you want or leaving them separated. This palette knife is perfect for smoothing buttercream in small areas!
6. Complete the tail feathers using the same technique as the wings. You can also blend the top of the tail feathers into the body using the palette knife if you’d like.
7. To create sparkly hummingbirds (as they have beautiful feathers in real life) add some Fancy Sprinkles Prism Powder using a fan brush. I went with the Rose Quartz and Aquamarine shades. So pretty!

   

   

The bright colors of buttercream frosting are so fun to see on these decorated hummingbird cookies. I chose to do three different designs to keep it easy but it’s up to you. 

I’d love to know in the comments below, do you have a hummingbird feeder at your house? We have one and I love to see the hummingbirds visiting the back porch because of it.

Save the Tutorial for These Decorated Hummingbird Sugar Cookies

Make sure to save this colorful hummingbird decorated cookie tutorial! Use the image below to pin it to your spring cookie board on Pinterest. Alternatively, use any of the social share icons on the top of the page to share it to your favorite social media site.