 It is almost Valentine’s Day, and because I am always working to improve my cookie decorating skills, I thought some red and pink decorated sugar cookies would be perfect to celebrate! I love giving friends and neighbors little valentine gifts, like these cookies. It’s something they don’t expect, and it’s something they wouldn’t make for themselves. The recipe I used is an old “go to” favorite and so is the frosting.
No Fail Sugar Cookies
2 cups Butter
2 cups Sugar
2 Eggs
2 teaspoon Almond Extract
5 cups Flour
3 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and almond extract, and mix well.
Mix dry ingredients a little at a time to butter mixture.
Mix until flour is incorporated and the dough comes together.
The dough needs to be chilled. On the Kitchen Gifts web site
they recommend this great idea so you can start cutting out
your cookies sooner than later. Take a spatula fullÂ
of dough, and put it in the middle of a piece of
 parchment paper. Cover the dough with the same size
parchment paper. Roll out the dough to 1/4″ thickness.
Place the dough on a baking sheet, cover with plastic,Â
and let it chill in the refrigerator. Repeat the process
 until all the dough is used, and all the sheets ofÂ
parchment are in the fridge. By the time you are done,
the first sheet you put in should be done. If not, wait about
1/2 hour. They should be done by then.Â
Take out the first batch, cut out, and start baking at
350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
The best thing is that you are not adding any additionalÂ
 flour to your cookies.
If covered properly with the plastic, these can stay in
the fridge overnight. Many times I have made the recipe
before I go to bed, and then I cut them out andÂ
bake them in the morning.
 Here is the frosting recipe I use:
Antonia 74 Royal Icing  6 ounces Warm Water 5 tablespoons Meringue 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar 2.25 pounds Confectioner’s Sugar In a mixing bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Whisk together for 30 seconds. Add the Cream of Tartar. Whisk together for 30 seconds more. Place all the icing sugar in the bowl and mix on low for a full 10 minutes. The icing fill get thick and creamy. Keep bowl covered with a damp tea towel to prevent crusting. Tint with food colorings and water to obtain desired color and consistency. 
I started by outlining the cookie with a Wilton #2 tip.
 Then I filled it in.
I outlined and filled in the pink one, put in on top of a dry red cookie I added the white edible pearls to the red cookie before it dried. 
For the small pink cookie with the hearts, Â I outlined and filled in with pink, using a #2 tip. 
Then I placed 2 small dots, both the same size, right next to each other on the cookie, while the pink icing was wet. 
Then, I pulled each dot down to a center point to make a heart. 
You can see that on the large pink heart, I squiggled lines and dots, making it pink on pink, and attached a small red heart. Although I love my cookies to look perfect in my eyes, I am not there yet. But, everyone loves a decorated sugar cookie, and the smile on a friends face when they eat these, really is the best gift to me. Have fun with these! Thanks for joining me at The Freshman Cook.
