Rose Valentine Cookies

Each time I decorate cookies, my skills improve and  I get faster and more consistent.

Yes, it's no secret that good old fashioned practice is the way to upgrade your cookie decorating and these wet on wet rose Valentine cookies prove that point. The technique isn't hard, you just pipe a blob of wet icing onto wet icing and swirl it around with a toothpick or scribe tool. But, it does take some experience and finessing to make a rose that looks sort of realistic.

What I really love is that after lots of practice, I'm not only better at making wet on wet roses but I'm faster, which is why I even considered adding them to cookies for my upcoming fundraising sale.

Here's a sneak peak:

These mini rose cookies will be for sale in sets of two.

The mini rose cookies also look cute when stuck on top of a larger base cookie.

I used ivory, pink and a bit of moss green icing for these.

Here's a closeup of some mini roses. I used the same icing for the leaves to add groups of tiny dots.

Striped Double Decker Heart Cookies

I've been working hard for weeks now, making a wide variety of decorated cookies for an upcoming fundraiser to benefit The Wednesday Community Meal.

But after looking at my completed cookies yesterday morning, I realized there was definitely something lacking in the assortment. There were no cookies for the guys! Valentine's Day is for everyone and I needed to create a more masculine cookie option.

So that's how these striped double decker heart cookies came about and I couldn't be more pleased. Although they were easy to make, I think they turned out quite striking and prove that simple can be super cute!

Here's how I made them:

Make an equal number of rectangle or square base cookies and small hearts. Outline and fill the hearts with red royal icing and set them aside to dry.

Mix up flood consistency white royal icing and a small amount of flood consistency blue icing. Place them each in pastry bags fitted with #2 tips. Working on just one base cookie at a time, outline and fill it with white icing.

Use a scribe tool to evenly distribute the icing and give the cookie a gentle shake to help it settle.

Starting in the center, pipe a blue stripe and about 1/4-inch below pipe another one.

Keep adding evenly spaced stripes until you get to the bottom of the cookie.

Rotate the cookie so you can more easily add the remaining stripes. At least for me, working down is more comfortable than working up.

Add the stripes. It takes a few minutes, but they will all settle into the base icing for a flat look.

Set the cookies aside to dry completely and be sure to reserve a bit stiff icing for adhering the hearts.

Once the base cookies are dry, pipe a bit of stiff royal icing onto the back of a heart cookie and stick it to the base. Let them dry completely before serving or packaging.

Gold Valentine's Day Cookies

This year's Valentine's Treat Sale to benefit Food Ministries at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is quickly approaching, so I have been very busy this week trying my best to make treats that are as beautiful as they are delicious. I have even been adding a touch of gold to some of them.

The easiest way to add gold is to make a paint by mixing a bit of edible gold luster dust with a few drops of volka. Then all you have to do is paint it onto completely dry royal icing.

From experience, I've learned that it pays to buy good quality luster dusts. Inexpensive ones don't dissolve very well and tend to look grainy and clumpy on the cookies. I think Crystal Colors makes the best ones and they can be purchased online. I ordered the Gold Blush color I used for these from Global Sugar Art.

My favorite luster dust.

Painting the gold onto a brushed embroidery cookie. It's important that the royal icing be completely dry before you add the gold.

Here are a few more photos of the gold cookies that will be fore sale on Sunday, Feb. 14,  from 9 a.m. to noon at the Cathedral in Kempton Hall. Come early for the best selection because we do sell out. I hope to see you there.

"Watercolored" Cookies

These bright "watercolored" cookies are easy to make and a perfect Valentine's Day cookie project for novice decorators who also crave some artistic freedom.

The "watercolor" is just gel food coloring, thinned with a bit of vodka. You can also use water but vodka is my preference since the alcohol evaporates more quickly and reduces your risk of getting the cookies too wet and dissolving the icing base coats. Usually when I paint cookies, I use thinned royal icing which creates a more matte look.

The only real trick to making these is to be absolutely certain that your base coat of royal icing is completely dry before you start painting. If it's not fully dry, it will crack and begin to dissolve from the paint.

Once the painting dried, I piped some heart details with medium consistency red royal icing, using a  bag fitted with a number #1 tip.

So bake some cookies, flood them with royal icing, let them dry, choose your colors and let your creativity flow! It's so satisfying!

Here's how I painted mine, but you should paint yours anyway you like — Experiment and have fun!

Once your cookies are base coated and completely dry, mix colors by putting tablespoons of vodka in small bowls and tint them with gel coloring. The coloring goes a long way so start by adding just a touch at a time until you are satisfied. The colors I mixed were light pink, medium pink, turquoise and yellow.

Go for it by adding the colors one at a time, with a soft brush. Don't overload your brush because the paint goes farther than you think.

After adding the pinks, I decided to let the cookies dry a bit before moving on. It's important that you don't get the cookies too wet.

I decided to add some piped details to mine, but they looked nice without it too.

Let the cookies dry completely before packaging or serving.

Radiant Orchid Ombre Hearts

In honor of Pantone's 2014 color of the year,  Radiant Orchid, I made these simple and sweet ombre hearts.

These cookies can be made quickly and are perfect for Valentine's Day. Tones of Radiant Orchid are pretty, elegant and a nice change from the more traditional Valentine colors of pink and red.

To get the colors I wanted, I divided an equal amount of icing into four bowls and used a combination of AmeriColor Electric Pink and Electric Purple colorings.

My icing divided and ready for coloring.

In the first bowl I put one drop of each color, in the second, I put two drops of each color and so on, ending with four drops of each color in the fourth bowl. This is the easiest way I know to get even gradations of color.

Before decorating the cookies, I thinned the icings with water to flood consistency.

To decorate the cookies, I thinned the icings to flood consistency and used a #2 tip to outline and fill. 

These cookies come together very fast. I like to outline and fill three or four cookies at a time and use a skewer to help evenly distribute the icing.

Be sure to let the cookies dry before serving or packaging. This takes anywhere from 4 to 8 hours depending on humidity.

Hug And Kiss Cookies

You don't need any fancy cookie cutters to make these cute Hug and Kiss cookies for Valentine's Day.

Any small cookie cutter will do. I used a scalloped 1-inch rectangle cutter but a square or round cutter would just as well. 

I used three colors of royal icing to make them:

Medium pink for the base coat.
Red for the "X's" and "O's".
And, hot pink for the dot border.

The medium pink and red icings were flood consistency and the hot pink icing was piping consistency.  Because the cookies are small, I recommend using a #1 pastry tip for all of the icings. The small sized tip gives you better control for decorating a small cookie.

I didn't let the base coat dry before piping the "X's" and "O's" because I wanted the red icing to settle into the pink and be flat on the cookie.

Experiment with other color combinations. The brighter the better!