Cosmic Cookies

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!

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:

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.


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.


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?


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?


6. Because there’s no baking, you don’t have to wait!
Just line up the planets in order, then serve! Yum!


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