Happy Valentines Day!

My daughter and I thought it would be fun to bake sugar cookies and decorate them for Valentine's Day. Though I type with completely pink dyed hands, and am currently soaking the counter tops in cleaner so the pink spots go away, I have to admit it was fun to do.

The sugar cookies turned out beautifully! The recipe I used was simple:

Sugar Cookies:
3/4 cup salted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar in mixer. Add salt, vanilla and egg. Mix in flour. Chill the dough in the fridge while you clean up, they are easier to cut and less sticky. Preheat oven at 325c. Lightly flour area that you will be rolling the dough on, flour the rolling pin too.

I like to roll out sugar cookies on parchment paper. This way I use less flour, and they are easier to lift off their surface without distorting the shape. Roll dough out to be about 1/4 inch. I will put the baking sheet back in the fridge for about 10 minutes so they go right into the oven cold. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes. You don't want these cookies to brown, just very slightly on the bottom.

Next, prepare the icing. I found a great recipe at Bake at 350 (she does great cookies!)http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/2010/01/royal-icing-102-or-201-or-whatever.html
Be very careful with the amount of water you use - at one point I had it a little thick, then too thin. Add very small amounts to adjust your icing!

I brought any valentine like sprinkle I had out of the cupboard and put the icing into decorating bottles.

And the fun began. We tried all sorts of different things to see what we liked the best. Some helpful tips: use toothpicks to spread icing around or pop air bubbles, shake the cookie back and forth (keeping it flat on the surface) to spread the icing evenly over the cookie, always draw your border first, and most important.....always do this with someone you like to talk to.

In the end, there was pink everywhere but we had a fun afternoon chatting about school, Justin Beiber, and iPhones. Plus, we had some fabulous looking cookies to share!