Simple Valentine's Day Cookies

 I woke up in a festive mood this morning and decided to make cookies (with oldest baby's "help")in the name of St. Valentine! I wish I had gotten a picture of the cookies he helped with, so funny. He ended up eating more than he decorated. :)

Tuesday is Valentine's Day and as far as I know, Hubs and I have no plans....we are not usually big on the whole candy, cards, and cheesy-gooey commercial style love stuff...but I thought it would be a good idea to practice basic baking skills and why not make them hearts for the kiddo's sake?? They are adorable and easy, easy, easy to make.

 The cookies are a basic sugar cookie that I tweaked a little here and there to make my own. I add a few secret ingredients and omit some that are not completely essential to the leavening process. I also dont add exactly as much flour as the recipe calls for...in my opinion, based on the recipe I used, less flour made the cookies much more tender and soft.

 While the cookies were baking and cooling I made a Royal icing for cookies, which I then separated into 3 bowls. I died one bowl pink, one red, and left one white. A note to those who have not tried dying Royal icing before...it takes A WHOLE BOATLOAD of dye, much more than for a buttercream frosting. Be prepared to use a whole small container if you are looking for a deep, evenly saturated color.

Cookies cooling!

When the cookies were cooled I piped white icing in a heart shape on the cookies then flooded them with the same white icing. Then I drew red and pink alternating hearts with a small line. Lastly, I gently drug a toothpick down the center of the icing making a cappucino-esque marbled effect! So pretty! On another cookie, using the same basic technique I piped a heart with a line down the middle dividing in in half. I then flooded each side with different colors and used the toothpick to make lines down the center. On the remaining cookies I held the piping bags above the cookies and using all the different colors made free-style swirls for a whimsical, messy-funky look.

Now, please keep in mind that these were done while feeding my 4 1/2 month old, trying to help my 2yr old with his cookies, and pulling other cookies out of the oven. NOT my neatest icing job! However, I think they are still very cute.

The marbling technique is fantastic and can be used to create any design in any color. A cute idea would be to use coffee colored icing on a mug-shaped cookie to mimic coffee house style cappucino art. Hope you all enjoyed!!

xoxo