These adorable bear cookies are easy to make with a chocolate cookie base, chocolate frosting, ‘nilla wafer, m&m candy eyes and mini oreo cookies!
Flash back 12 or so years to when I was 14 or 15 years old. My cousin and I stayed at our grandmother’s house for a couple days prior to a family reunion and she wanted us to choreograph a dance to a song called “Teddy Bear Picnic”. We did and taught our younger girl cousins the dance as well and we all performed it at our family reunion. I’m not sure my point of this, except that these cute bear cookies would be perfect for a Teddy Bear Picnic.
These cookies are super simple to make. You can make a homemade chocolate cookie and frosting – but I just kept the recipe super easy with a chocolate cake mix and canned frosting. Then you’ll use Nilla Wafers, m&ms, candy eyes and mini Oreos to decorate the cookies to make them look like these cute bears! You don’t even need a teddy bear cookie cutter.
These cookies would be adorable to serve at a bear party, teddy bear picnic, a birthday party, or just for fun! If you have kids I know they would love to help you decorate these cookies and eat them when you’re done!
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Ingredients Needed:
This is a quick overview of the ingredients you’ll need for this Bear Cookie recipe. Specific measurements and full recipe instructions are in the printable recipe card below.
- chocolate cake mix – I love using a Devil’s Food Cake Mix from Duncan Hines, but any dry chocolate cake mix should work
- eggs – you’re not following the recipe on the back of the cake mix box, but making a dough with less eggs and no water
- vegetable oil – you can use your favorite oil, canola oil, or melted coconut oil should work great
- chocolate frosting – grab a can from the store, or whip up a batch of your favorite homemade chocolate buttercream frosting
- mini Nilla Wafer cookies
- mini Oreo cookies
- brown m&ms or mini m&m
- candy eyes
How to make Bear Cookies?
- Combine your chocolate cake mix, eggs, and vegetable oil in a large bowl and stir them together with a rubber spatula until they are mixed together into a soft cookie dough.
- Scoop the cookie dough into balls, about 1 to 1.5 Tablespoons in size, and roll dough into smooth balls. Place them onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet, at least 2 inches apart. Flatten the balls slightly with your hands.
- Bake the cookies until the tops start to get crinkled. Remove them from the oven and let the cookies cool for 5 to 10 minutes on the pan, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Spread the chocolate frosting over the top of the cookies. Place one mini Nilla Wafer onto the bottom half of a cookie. Then place two candy eyes above the wafer. Then add frosting to one M&M and place it onto the Nilla Wafer to make the bear’s nose. Then add two mini Oreos to the tops of the cookies like ears. Let the frosting set, and enjoy the cookies.
Tips and Tricks:
- Try using double chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, or your favorite cookie, and frost them with chocolate frosting for your cookie base, instead of the cake mix cookie base for these cookies.
How to store cookies?
These bear head cookies can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Because of the layers on the cookies, I suggest laying them in a single layer, but if you need to stack them put a layer of parchment paper between each layer.
These teddy bear cookies are such easy cookies, thanks to their chocolate cake mix cookie base, and are such a fun cookie to make for a Teddy Bear Picnic, a back to school treat, or any day of the year. My kids just love them, and I know you will too.
More animal cookies:
- Easter Bunny Cookies
- Reindeer Cookies
- Peanut Butter Turkey Cookies
- Owl Cookies // Pillsbury
- Penguin Oreo Cookies // Life Love Liz
- Pig Cookies // Taste of Home
- Polar Bear Cookies // Noshing with the Nolands
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Bear Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 can of chocolate frosting (or 2 cups homemade chocolate frosting)
- 24-28 mini Nillia Wafers
- 24-28 brown m&ms
- 1 package candy eyes
- 48-56 mini oreos
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium sized bowl combine your cake mix, eggs and vegetable oil and stir together to make a thick cookie batter.
- Scoop 1½ – 2 TBS of dough and roll into a ball. Repeat with additional dough.
- Place 12 cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone liner.
- Bake cookies for about 8 minutes until the tops start to get crinkly.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet.
- Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
- Spread frosting over the top of a cookie.
- Place one nilla wafer onto the bottom half of cookie.
- Place two candy eyes above the nilla wafer.
- Place two mini oreos above the eyes like ears.
- Attach one m&m to each Nilla wafer using frosting.
- Allow frosting to set and enjoy!
These bear cookies were first posted on April 6, 2016. The photos and text were updated on August 25, 2023.
Things you might need for this recipe:
Karen says
They turned out perfectly for a baby shower and we’re delicious
Jen | Baked by an Introvert says
Oh my goodness. These cookies are just too adorable. Love them!