Ingredient: pure cherry extract or natural cherry flavoring

Each spring, I look forward to the sight and fragrance of beautiful botanical blooms, especially cherry blossoms. We often think of cherry blossoms as something unique to Washington D.C. or Japan, but cherry blossoms can be found in many regions of the United States. Georgia has many thousands of the beautiful pink trees. They can also be found in my home state, California. Here in California we also have many other types of beautiful blossoming fruit trees.

Inspired by the beautiful pink blossoms, I baked some cherry blossom cookies. There are many varieties of the blossoming pink trees. The Yoshino variety that we love to admire is not the same as the trees that produce cherries that we typically eat, but I decided to make the cookies cherry flavor anyway. Cherry extract is more accessible, but it’s also possible to make the cookies sakura blossom flavor if you prefer. You can purchase culinary sakura blossoms or sakura powder and flavor the cookies with it.

These perfectly pretty, pink cookies are easy to make and fun to decorate. You can sprinkle sparkling sugar on them before baking and call it a day or you can make some pink cherry icing and add sugar pearls or sprinkles. Either way, they look beautiful and taste delicious!