Heart Sugar Cookies

I’m casting pride aside with this post.

I hate am not a big fan of these pictures.

Sometimes my camera skills fail me.

I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I realized five minutes before leaving for work that I had forgotten to actually photograph these sweeties.

Poor morning light + no tripod + being in a big fat hurry = a product in picture form, at least, that I’m not so proud of.

Good news, though. The real things were festively cute. I used my FAVORITE sugar cookie recipe (see below), my FAVORITE royal icing and before I knew it, the kitchen had been heart attacked.

* After outlining the cookies I flooded them with thinned royal icing. Immediately after that I added the contrasting color decoration. For the dots I used a #3 tip and just piped it on. Since the flooded icing is still runny, the contrasted icing just magically soaks into it’s spot.

* For for the zig-zag decoration I flooded the cookie and then used that #3 tip to make horizontal lines going across the cookie. Once the cookie was striped, I ran a toothpick up and down from one side of the cookie to another. Voila! It looks terribly complicated and its probably one of the easiest decorating techniques out there. Seriously, easy.

Even if you pass on the royal icing (come on, give it a try!) these cookies will be a sweet, LOVEly addition to your Valentine’s Day! Stay tuned, I’ve got one more idea coming…

Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 ½ cups sifted flour

Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm.

Roll to ¼ inch thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets.

Bake at 375 for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool.

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