Spring is finally here and with it comes the joy of seasonal baking, Easter treats and all things cute and colourful! If you’re looking for a fun and easy Easter dessert, these vegan bumble bee cookies are just what you need.

These adorable bee-shaped sandwich cookies are made with soft, vanilla-infused cookies and a luscious chocolate buttercream filling. One cookie is half-dipped in rich dark chocolate, while the other is decorated with a smiley face and almond slice wings, creating the cutest little bumble bee cookies you’ve ever seen.

Not only do these cookies look amazing on an Easter dessert table, but they’re also completely vegan, dairy-free, and kid-friendly. Whether you’re baking for an Easter brunch, spring picnic, or just a sweet treat to brighten your day, these little bees are guaranteed to bring smiles.

And the best part? They’re surprisingly easy to make! So, grab your mixing bowl and let’s create some springtime magic in the kitchen.

Why you’ll love these vegan bee cookies

These cookies aren’t just cute – they’re packed with flavour and fun! Here’s why you’ll want to make them this Easter and beyond:

100% Vegan & Dairy-Free – No eggs, no dairy, just pure plant-based goodness.
Adorably Themed for Easter & Spring – These bee cookies are perfect for Easter baskets, brunch tables, or a spring garden party.
Fun to Make with Kids – Let the little ones help with decorating the smiley faces!
Chocolate & Vanilla Perfection – A soft vanilla cookie meets creamy chocolate buttercream for the ultimate flavour combo.
Great for Gifting – Wrap these up in a cute box, and they make the sweetest homemade Easter gift.
Make-Ahead Friendly – Bake the cookies in advance and assemble them later, perfect for busy schedules.

Whether you’re a seasoned baker or just looking for a foolproof Easter baking project, these vegan bee cookies are a must-try!

Ingredients and substitutions

Golden caster sugar

• Has a subtle caramel flavour and a slightly warmer, richer taste than white caster sugar because it’s unrefined and retains some molasses, a byproduct of sugar processing that gives it its golden hue and caramel-like flavour. The molasses contributes to a moister texture in baked goods.
• Substitute with white caster sugar if you can’t find golden or it’s too expensive.

Vegan butter

• ideally it needs to be the hard block kind of vegan butter rather than the soft spread stuff in a tub. I’ve not tried these cookies with the soft kind but you may find they spread a little too much and don’t hold their shape as well.

Plant milk

• I tend to use unsweetened soya milk for everything – from my cuppa to everything baked or cooked. Use whatever plant milk you prefer.

Cacao powder

• this is something I’ve spoken a lot about on the blog. It’s far less processed than cocoa powder and has a much richer, more chocolatey flavour.  It contains no additional sugar or additives and it even has a few health benefits!
• It IS more expensive than cocoa powder though, so bake according to your budget.  No recipe is ever set in stone 😉

Dairy free chocolate

• Use a reasonable quality dark chocolate – the cookies are quite sweet so the slight bitterness of dark chocolate makes a wonderful contrast.

Flaked almonds

• Also called slivered or sliced almonds. If you want to keep the recipe nut free you could pipe white chocolate wings instead!

Yellow food colouring

• optional but it does give our bee cookies their traditional bee colour!

Step by step instructions

To make the cookies, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. You can do this by hand (you’ll need to soften the butter first) or in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment. Beat in the milk, vanilla and yellow colouring. Then add the flour and baking powder and beat until just mixed together.

To get them all as much the same size as possible you’ll need to do some weighing. Weigh the whole amount of dough then divide by the number of cookies you want to make. This recipe makes 24 cookies so 12 sandwich cookies. So divide the total weight by 24 and you’ll get the weight of each cookie.

Once you’ve got your weighed out blobs of dough, roll them into balls then flatten slightly in your palm. Place on a lined baking tray. They do spread so you’ll need to space each of the cookies a little way apart from each other.

Bake for 12 minutes until just domed and lightly golden – they do firm up as they cool. Leave on the tray for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Decorating the bumble bee cookies

While they’re cooling beat together the ingredients for the buttercream – either by hand (again using softened butter) or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

TIP: a very small splash of boiling water while you’re whipping the buttercream frosting makes it super light and fluffy.

Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.

Once the cookies have cooled melt the dark chocolate in the microwave or a bain-marie (a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water). Spoon some of the chocolate into a small paper piping bag then pipe eyes and a smiley mouth on half of the amount of cookies

Squeeze any chocolate out of the bag into the rest of the melted chocolate. Dip the other half of the cookies in the chocolate (the domed side) to make the bee bums! Leave somewhere cool to set.

Mix a spoonful of icing sugar with a literal tiny amount of water and an equally tiny amount of pink food colouring. Spoon that into another piping bag then pipe ‘cheeks’ onto the bee faces.

Finishing the cookies

Once set turn the bee bums over and on the flat side pipe a swirl of buttercream covering the cookie. Add the face to make a sandwich. Add a couple of flaked almonds to make the ‘wings’.

Store the cookies in an airtight container somewhere cool for up to 5 days.

Looking for even more vegan spring and Easter baking recipes? Try these:

• Daisy Cookies with Lemon Curd
• Double Chocolate and Orange Hot Cross Buns
• Chia Lemon Muffins with Lemon Curd
• Hot Cross Bun Bread Pudding
• Carrot Cake Muffins

Fancy something a little more savoury? How about these:

• Warm Spring Salad with New Potatoes and Lemon Miso Dressing
• Spring Salad with Vegan Roast Chicken and Asparagus
• Spring Vegetable Orzo Pasta

If you make this recipe or any of the recipes from The Cook & Him I’d LOVE to see! Just snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #thecookandhim and tagging @thecookandhim in the photo itself (as this guarantees I’ll see your picture!)

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