MICKEY MOUSE OREO AND CHOCOLATE COOKIES: Mickey Mouse Day

Happy Birthday, Mickey! Today Mickey Mouse is 93 years old. For Mickey's 90th birthday, Oreo released Limited-Edition Birthday Cake Flavor cookies. I'm pretty sure they've been discontinued, but I found a package for sale on eBay. What's the shelf-life of Oreos?

Mickey Mouse made his debut in the Disney cartoon Steamboat Willie on November 18, 1928. The Oreo Birthday Cake Flavor Cookies have cake-flavored creme filling with fun colored spriknles and the chocolate wafers have three different designs: one with the mouse wearing a party hat and the others are a party horn and the number 90. The packaging is also a retro-styled image of Mickie that harkens back to Steamboat Willie.

O.K. so this is probably not a cookie you can buy, but here's a recipe for Mickey and Minnie Chocolate Cookies you can make to celebrate! This recipe for Mickey Mouse Chocolate Cookies is from Disney Family Recipes. You'll need a Mickey Mouse Cookie Cutter (I have several different ones--full body, head, ears, etc). 

MICKEY MOUSE CHOCOLATE COOKIES

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ sticks of butter, softened

Parchment paper

Mickey Mouse Shaped Cookie Cutter 

For the Chocolate Icing: 
3 cups confectioners sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 to 6 tablespoons water
¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

Helpful Tip 
If your dough is too sticky even after you’ve chilled it, work more flour into the dough while your roll it out. To add the white icing stripes, make extra icing without the cocoa powder and use a fork or whisk to dribble white icing over the chocolate iced cookies. 

Directions 
Whip butter in mixer until pale and fluffy. Add sugar, baking soda, salt, vanilla, egg, and whip until blended. Add flour ½ a cup at a time while continuing to mix. Add cocoa powder slowly until fully mixed into the dough. Halvedough and wrap each half in parchment paper. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Take first half of dough and roll out between parchment paper until ¼ – ½ inch thick. Use Mickey Mouse cookie cutter to cut out Mickey shapes. Place Mickey cookies on parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 14 minutes. Continue to roll and cut out dough until all dough has been cut and baked. Set cookies aside on parchment paper to cool.

Sift together confectioners sugar and Dutch-process cocoa powder into bowl. Add lemon juice and vanilla. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time while whisking. Stop adding water when icing is thick but spreadable. Fill sandwich bag with chocolate icing and cut off bottom corner. Pipe icing onto cookies, using knife to evenly spread icing over surface.