Valentine's Day cookies

This Valentine's Day I geared up for a huge cookie project! I made tons and tons of heart shaped sugar cookies and then decorated them in three groups, trying out some different recipes for the cookies and icings while I was going along. It was super-fun and a huge learning experience for me....and also very humbling. Those beautifully decorated cookies you see in stores and bakeries are harder to make then I first thought! Even filling all those decorating bags with icing and tieing them the correct way took a learning curve...not to mention picking out the correct decorating tip and trying to actually pipe icing with a steady hand. Yikes!

Some pictures of the baking process to get YOU inspired to bake! What could be lovelier then butter and sugar in a mixer just waiting to be creamed?? Can't you just smell the delicious-ness of fresh baked sugar cookies, with lots of vanilla added in? YUM!









The first group of cookies I made were decorated with a simple poured vanilla frosting and then I used sanding sugar to jazz them up. They turned out just beautiful!







This second group was decorated to look like conversation hearts. They were for teachers, so all the messages were appropriate for that audience. It was 4 colors of royal icing piped and flooded, then outlined in white royal icing and words piped with pink royal icing. (I need to work on steadying those hands when piping! A little shakey in some spots!) But overall, turned out really cute!












The last group I made were just piped and flooded with royal icing and then piped with royal icing decorations. These were just to have fun with and practice decorating. I sketched out a few ideas on paper before doing this project so I would know what types of designs to do.













It was a fun understaking for Valentine's Day and I know I will continue to improve my decorating skills with each new project! Look out St. Patty's Day.....