Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies: Lipstick & Sassy Conversation Hearts Recipe & Decorations Tutorial | Video
I love making decorated sugar cookies for all of the holidays. So, with Valentine's Day coming up I thought I would share how I make my cookies & a few tips for decorating so you can make them too! Decorating these cookies is very calming to me, because I only focus on making them look great & not whatever else is going on in my life. But, the funny thing is- I don't even like how they taste because I don't like sugar cookies much!I didn't invent these recipes at all, so I can't take credit for them. I've followed BakeAt350 for years, and have only used her Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookie recipe to make my cookies, although I change it a bit. Then, the royal icing is from Sweetopia. Definitely check these blogs out if you like baking because they're a lot better than me! Also, a little secret...if you're lazy and don't want to make the cookies yourself, just buy pre-made dough or a mix, and cut out into shapes, freeze for 5 minutes, and bake according to the package instructions. This way, you still get to decorate them but the entire process doesn't take as long.
Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookie Recipe
- 3 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
- Hearty Pinch Of Salt
- 1 Cup Granulated White Sugar
- 2 Sticks of Butter (I use unsalted)
- 1 Egg
- 3/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 Teaspoon Almond Extract
Preheat over to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Add baking powder and salt. Gradually incorporate flour and beat until combined. Hand knead the dough because it's crumbly. Roll out thick- about 1/4 inch to 3/8 inches thick and cut into whatever shapes you like. Place on parchment lined cookie sheets, freeze for 5 minutes before baking to prevent spreading, and then bake for 10-12 minutes.Royal Icing Recipe
- 6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
- 5 tablespoons meringue powder
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 kilogram (2 1/4 lbs) powdered icing sugar
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of clear extract
Sift powdered sugar to prevent any clumps. In a mixer bowl with the paddle attachment pour in the warm water and meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until frothy and thickness (~30 seconds). Add cream of tartar and mix again. Add any extract (optional) and pour in all of the powdered sugar at once and mix on low for a full 10 minutes.After you make this royal icing, you can thin it to your desired consistencies and separate it into colors to tint with the AmeriColor Food Gels.A few things you'll also need:
- wet paper towels to cover the royal icing so it doesn't harden, and to clean off piping tips
- piping tips (I use Wilton #1 and #2 mostly)
- squeeze bottles
- toothpicks
- food coloring markers (for conversation heart cookies)
- lustre dust (edible- found at Michael's)
- vodka (to mix with lustre dust and food coloring for stamping)
- new stamps in letters or any designs you want
I hope the process I described was pretty straight forward- it was hard to trim down hours of footage into 23 minutes, but it's still a long video to watch. Just pretend you're watching the food network I guess! Let me know how you like this video and I will try to do more recipe videos (that aren't as long!) soon. And don't forget, if you make these cookies, don't forget to share them on instagram or twitter and tag me @oliviafrescura!
