Cookies With Heart

With a pretty pink heart center, these cookies are perfect for Valentine's Day!

To make cupcake cookies with heart centers you will need:

• Cookies made from your favorite sugar cookie recipe
• Cupcake cookie cutter
• Heart cookie cutter (slightly smaller than the cupcake cookie cutter)
• Red or pink food coloring
• Royal icing in white and brown
• White sugar pearls
• Icing bags or bottles, couplers, and a #3 decorating tip
• Rainbow disco dust
• Clear almond extract
• Two small, clean (used for baking only) painting brushes

After making your dough using your favorite sugar cookie recipe, separate it into two sections, one for the cupcake part and one for the heart part of your cupcake cookies. Since the hearts are smaller, reserve most of the dough for the cupcakes.

Add a small amount of red food coloring to the dough you separated out for the hearts. Knead the dough together until the red food coloring is blended throughout, creating pink cookie dough. Add more food coloring a little bit at a time if needed.

Once your dough is the pink color you are after, roll out the dough to your desired cookie thickness and cut out the hearts.

Then, roll out your un-dyed dough and cut out your cupcake cookies, cutting a heart out of the center of each cupcake shape. Replace each un-dyed heart with a pink heart. Bake your heart cupcake cookies according to the directions of your sugar cookie recipe.

If you would like the centers of your cookies to have a sparkly look, it’s easy to do. Simply brush a small amount of clear vanilla extract (or a mixture of half meringue power and half water) onto the pink heart. Then, dip the end of a clean, dry paint brush into rainbow disco dust. Hold it above the cookie, tapping it with your finger so the disco dust falls lightly onto the wet surface of the heart. Gently shake off any excess dust and continue this process for each heart cupcake cookie.

Using white royal icing that is a 20-count consistency, pipe a border around the top of your cookies.While the icing is wet, cover it with white sugar pearls. Work with a few cookies at a time, giving a few minutes for the icing to set on each one before gently shaking of any excess sugar pearls. Next, pipe the bottom border on the cookies using brown piping consistency (30-count) royal icing.

Let the cookies dry for 24 hours before packing or shipping. I used my heart cupcake cookies in a gift basket with heart cupcake pops. Lucky for me there were extras of everything!

For more creative sweets made simple, visit sugarkissed.net or stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.