"Fancy" Valentine's Day Cookies

If you've been around me in the last two weeks, you've probably heard about my obsession with "fancy cookies." I've long loved these sweet treats, but decided I would attempt making some of my own for Valentine's Day treats for work and for my loves. I went and purchased all the supplies this past week {P.S. Kroger has meringue powder wayyy cheaper than Wal-Mart!}, and got started Friday evening making my dough.

The first batch of dough I used was yummy, but really challenging to work with. I ended up making two batches of this Wilton roll out cookie recipe without any almond extract because that's not my favorite. I made about seven dozen cookies, and this royal icing recipe made more than enough for me to ice them all with with enough for probably another dozen left over! My first batch of dough was from that same recipe link, but I felt like the Wilton recipe was less material to work with, and cut better.

I used three different heart shaped cutters, and found that the wider hearts ended up looking better with the icing on them. I made four colors with gel dye: pink, red, purple and white. I used a variety of techniques and sprinkles to just try to get comfortable with this whole thing! I made only one consistency of icing, and would line the cookies and let it set for a few minutes before flooding it with color.

It does take a while for the icing to dry for stacking, but it's also been raining and will be raining for a lot of this week, so the humidity in the air may have affected the drying time! I'm definitely going to make these again...shamrocks, anyone? I think it will go a lot faster/smoother now that I've done it once and know what to expect. I'll also try to do a couple of different consistencies for decorating and texture.

If you have any royal icing tips or ideas, leave me a comment!