Valentine’s day is coming up soon and these super cute Valentine’s Day cookies are the perfect treat for your sweetie! Keep reading to find out step by step how I made these!
Let’s get started!
First things first, we need cookies! I used my easy, no spread sugar cookie recipe for these beauties. Once you’ve made the cookie dough, form it into two discs and chill for at least an hour. After chilling, roll it out to about 1/4 inch thick and cut with your favorite heart shaped cookie cutter. Bake them at 350° F for about 7-10 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. Mine are about 4 inches by 4 inches and took 8 minutes for the bottoms to just start to brown. Pull them out once you see the bottom edges browning to keep the soft, chewy texture. Allow to cool completely before decorating.
Royal Icing
I use royal icing to decorate my sugar cookies. It’s easier than you think to get super cute cookies with royal icing. Here’s my recipe:
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp meringue powder
- 5 tbsp water
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
Sift powdered sugar and meringue powder into the bowl of your stand mixer. Add water, vanilla and almond extract. Mix on low until stiff peaks form. I like to cover my mixer with a kitchen towel before turning it on the keep the powdered sugar snow storm at bay. Store any unused icing in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Just fluff it up with your mixer when you’re ready to use it.
Colors, colors, colors!
Next we need to color our royal icing and get it ready to work with. Separate the icing into different bowls for each color you plan on using. I used 3 colors so I used 3 bowls. For the red I used Wilton’s Christmas Red and Wilton’s Color Right System Crimson. For the black I used Wilton’s Black Black. For the white, I just left it alone. You can add white food coloring to make it even brighter but I’m lazy and was fine with the natural whiteness of the icing.
Consistency is key!
I like to add in a tiny bit of water along with the food coloring so that I can get my icing to the consistency I want to use. I use my 1/4 teaspoon to add the water, stirring between each addition. You can also use a spray bottle to add water. As I’ve said before, I’m lazy. I don’t make flood consistency icing. Gasp! Instead, I flood my cookies with what some people call 15 second icing. Basically it takes 15 seconds for it to smooth out. I like it because I can outline and flood with the same piping bag instead of 2! I left the black icing a little more stiff (think toothpaste consistency) because I would only be piping letters with it and I wanted them to hold their shape.
Decorating your Valentine’s Day cookies
Now that we have our colors sorted, it’s time for the fun part. Decorating! To get the look I made, outline and flood your cookies like the pictures above. Let that dry for about 10 minutes. Then add dots around the outside of your heart like in the picture below. Finally, write “love” in your black icing. Now, let those bad boys dry. I leave mine to dry on the counter overnight to make sure everything is good and set.
All it takes is a little practice! I find most people think they’re adorable even when all you see are your mistakes (I make plenty with every batch of cookies I decorate) so just have fun with it! They will be hit, I promise!
Valentine's Day Cookies and a Lesson on Royal Icing
