Cosmic Cookies

Sun

All the planets in our solar system do NOT look alike. They come in different colors, and are covered with cool features like  craters , ice caps, clouds, hurricanes , and volcanoes . 

Click a planet to find out more!

8 planets of our solar system lined up.
Mercury selected
Venus selected
Earth selected
Mars selected
Jupiter selected
Saturn selected
Uranus selected
Neptune selected

Mercury

Mercury looks a lot like our moon, except that it is orange-red. Its dry, rocky surface is covered in craters and ridges.

Venus

Venus is covered with thick yellow clouds that trap heat from the sun, which makes Venus a huge desert. Its rocky surface is covered in volcanoes.

Earth

Earth’s surface is covered mostly with dark blue water. It has polar ice caps and continents marked by tall mountains, and has swirling white clouds.

Mars

Mars looks red because its soil is full of iron that has rusted. It has polar ice caps, deep canyons, and huge, extinct volcanoes.

Jupiter

Jupiter is a giant ball of yellow, orange, and red gas arranged in stripes. It is much larger than any other planet. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is actually a 300-year old hurricane twice as wide as Earth!

Saturn

Saturn is known for its spectacular rings. Saturn is a big, striped ball of gas like Jupiter, but it looks yellow because of its foggy atmosphere.

Uranus

The ice crystals in the atmosphere of Uranus make this gas planet appear pale blue-green.

Neptune

Neptune looks blue with faint stripes. It is made of gas, and its hot center stirs up huge hurricanes in its clouds.

Solar System text Goes here

Now show what you know about each planet by making your own Cosmic Cookies!

Follow the directions below to make miniature planets that look just like the real thing. When you’re done, eat ‘em! No baking is required to make these delicious Cosmic Cookies. See how many of each planet’s features you can include.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

Table with peanut butter, honey, powdered milk, graham crackers, a mixing bowl and serving spoon, sprinkles and several decorated cookie balls.

 

Batter Ingredients:

  • 1 ¼ cup peanut butter
  • 1 ¼ cup honey
  • ½ cup wheat germ
  • ¾ cup plain or cinnamon graham crackers
  • 2 ½ cups powdered milk

 

You’ll also need:

  • measuring cups
  • a large mixing bowl
  • a large spoon
  • powdered sugar/cocoa/cake decorations/colored sprinkles
  • a rubber spatula (optional)
  • food coloring (optional)
  • an adult to make sure you don’t make too much of a mess (optional)

What to Do

Wash your hands first—you’ll be sticking them right into the batter!

1. Crush the graham crackers into very small pieces.

Two pairs of boys' hands breaking up graham crackers over a measuring cup that is half-filled with other broken pieces.
A boy pouring graham cracker crumbs from a small glass cup into a large metal mixing bowl.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. Use the rubber spatula or your fingers to get all the peanut butter and honey out of the measuring cup. 

Stir until the graham cracker crumbs are evenly mixed-in.

Two boys over a large metal mixing bowl; one boy is pouring wheat germ into the bowl while the other stirs the bowl's mixture.
Closeup of a boy stirring cookie batter in a large metal bowl.

3. If you have some food coloring, make your cookies look more realistic by adding a few drops to small portions of batter. For example, you might use red for Mars , yellow for Venus , and blue for Neptune .

4. All planets are round, so getting the shape right is easy. Just use your hands to roll some cookie dough into a ball. Which planet is the biggest? Smallest?

Closeup of a boy holding cookie batter with his hands in front of a large metal bowl.
Closeup of two pairs of boys' hands rolling cookie dough into balls before a large metal bowl.

5. Decorate with powdered sugar, cocoa, cake decorations, or colored sprinkles. 

Remember, try to make your edible worlds look like the real thing. Which planets are rocky? Which have clouds? Which have craters or volcanoes?

Two boys rolling cookie dough balls in containers of sprinkles and powdered sugar.
Closeup of hands placing two sprinkle-covered cookie balls on a plate.

6. Because there’s no baking, you don’t have to wait! 

Just line up the planets in order, then serve! Yum!

Closeup of 8 cookie balls decorated to look like the planets of our solar system.
Boy gleefully biting into a decorated cookie ball while his friend—who is also holding a cookie—looks on in the background.
Image credits

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Image Credits:

Illustrations by Eric Hamilton & Liz Vernon; Photos ©AMNH.