Valentine's Heart Cookie Tutorial

Happy Friday! couldn't wait for this day to arrive. It's been a long week.
 Weather has been very cold around here and we are expecting more rain this weekend.

I have been working on a little project and I have been baking so much! last Wednesday I used over 10 pounds of flour!! and what can I say? I am already feeling my pants tight from all the taste tasting I am doing.

Ok, so I am not going to bore you any more and let's make these heart Valentine's cookies.

I made this cookie set for The Cookie Cutter Company.

I wanted to do some elegant cookies and using a cute silicon mold is the best and fastest way to accomplish that.

 

To make these cookies you will need:

-Heartcookie cutter

-HeartFluted cookie cutter

-Lovecookie cutter

-Bright white and tulip red Americolor colored royal icing

-Tip#1,#2 and couplers

-Pastry bags and squeeze bottles

-Gold disco dust

-Mini rose silicon mold (sold at many craft stores)

-kopykake (totally optional)

-Small and medium size brush

-Shortening

-Small amount of fondant

 

 

 These are the little roses that came out from the mold, they were the perfect size for these cookies and turned out so cute.

 

 

Gather the supplies and let's make the roses:

 

Silicon molds are available in many styles and give the perfect detail for accent small areas on cookies.

Please keep in mind that these mini roses will dry a little but they are totally safe to eat, or you can just remove them and eat only the cookie ( something that I would do)

To make the roses start by kneading the fondant using a small amount of shortening. I used some white fondant that I had around mixed with tulip red gel to accomplished the pink color in the picture.

 

-Make small balls of fondant and press them into the mold filling the entire cavity.

-Scrape off the excess fondant with a small spatula, then, press against the edges of the cavity with your finger to make sure all the edges are clean.

-Hold the silicon mold with both hands and press in the center to release the mini roses.

 

 

 

-Place the mini roses on a paper towel

-Mix a little gold disco dust with vodka (I used an old container I had with gold luster dust) and using a small brush apply it to the edges of the petals.

-Set the mini fondant roses aside

 

 

WHITE FLUTED COOKIE HEART

 

 

-Outline and flood the cookies and let them dry completely.

 

-Squirt a little amount of the tulip red color on a clean small container and blended with a dab of water.

 Using a medium size brush, apply a few strokes here and there on the cookie in no particular order.

 

Attach the roses to the cookies with a dab of royal icing 

 

RED COOKIE HEART

 

 

To make these elegant red heart cookies, follow same instructions as the white heart cookies. 

For these cookies, I added a few strokes of gold disco dust mixed with a little vodka.

Attach roses with a dab of royal icing and make a few extra details to accent the cookie. You can make lines, swirls and dots.

Adding a pearl bead border to the cookies adds an instant elegant feel so I went that way along with some scallop borders.

To make the bead border use stiff consistency icing and tip #2 or a bigger tip if you want to have a bigger size of beads.

Squeeze the decorating bag as you lift your hand raising the tip slightly so that the icing gets out

Relax pressure as you draw the tip down and bring the bead to a point. Stop squeezing and pull away the tip.

Start the next bead a little behind the end of the previous bead to form an even chain or leave some spaces in between like I did.

 

 

                                         LOVE COOKIE

 

I love this cutter, is pretty big and you have room to either go the traditional way and decorated similar to the “Love” Statue in Love Park in Philadelphia by sculptor Robert Indiana. 

In this pictorial you can see that I used my trusty kopykake to outline and flood the letters.

Or you can just do something totally different and do something else.

 

Here I used some small cookie cutters that I have and using an edible marker, I traced the letters.

Then, I outlined and flooded each letter. After the cookies were dry, I attached the fondant roses with some royal icing.

Are you traditional when decorating your Valentine's Day cookies ? what is your favorite way to use and decorate the Love cutter and the heart cookie cutters?

 

 

Last Minute Valentine's Day Ideas

Happy Monday!!  Valentine's Day is on Friday. How are you celebrating?
Dinner, movie or date night at home? I can tell you that both my husband and I will be working that day, this is one of the busiest days in the restaurant business and my husband will probably get home way to late for me to be up waiting for him.  
We are not the kind of throwing the super celebrations or gift giving, we are low key, a nice card do wonder for us. We celebrate Valentine's Day every day.

Any way, if you are in need of some ideas to put together a little treat for Friday, here are some of my Valentine's post. One of favorites is the Marshmallow Heat Pops that I made with my little one for her
classmates, easy and adorable as a little cheer me up for friends.

Marshmallow Heart Pops

Love-Ladybug Cookies 

The Classic-All American Birthday Cake 

Whale Cookies

Valentine's Heart Cookie Pops 

Valentines Snow Globe Cookie 

Fondant Stamp Heart Cookies 

Recipe for Love Cookie

Pastel Winter Snowman Cookies

Happy cold Tuesday!!

 we are under another awful Snowstorm here in New Jersey! that means early school dismissal. early daycare closing, leaving work early and getting in my PJ"s as soon as possible.

can Spring be here early? 

In the mean time, I made these  fun pastel Snowman cookies for The Cookie Cutter Company , they are cute and with a Valentine feeling to brighten your day in this cold Winter.

To make these cookies you will need the following cookie cutters and supplies:

snowman 4"

snowman with scarf 3.5"

tilted hot snowman 4"

house 3.5"

Tip 2 and 3

pastry bags,couplers and squeeze bottles  

white and pink royal icing

black and orange food writers

heart sprinkles

fondant color of your choice ( I used americolor soft pink and mint green)

white sanding sugar

clay extruder

small painting brush

small pairing knife

rolling pin

fondant mat

Pink Snowman

Outline and flood the top and bottom section of the snowman , let the icing set for a few minutes before flooding the middle part. 

Let the cookie dry over night.

Roll a piece of fondant very thin and using the same cookie cutter that was used for the cookie, cut the hat. Using the small brush, apply a thin layer of royal icing on the hat area of the cookie,attach the fondant hat and mark details with a pairing knife.

With the food writer, draw the eyes, mouth,carrot nose and hands, I even dusted a little bit of pink lusted dust for the cheeks.

Attach the sprinkle heart with royal icing

Follow instruction above to decorate the skinny snowman

These fun chubby guys were fun to decorate. The 3D scarf add a touch of cuteness to them. 

Outline and flood the cookies. Let the cookies dry overnight.

Mix a little shortening and fondant between your hands and insert a piece of fondant inside the clay extruder . Using the rope disk, extract the fondant and make a rope , combine colors of use just a plain one, the possibilities are endless.

Attach the scarf to the cookie with royal icing. Draw the face details.

I went the simple way with this house, but there are so many details that you can add. Use candy, green for some grass or pipe some small flowers and make a wreath.

Stat outlining and flooding your cookie. Outline and flood the chimney.

Let the cookie dry and using a tip #3 pipe the snow, sprinkle the sanding sugar, let it set for a few minutes and remove the excess.

 Use stiff royal icing and tip#2 to pipe the door and windows.

Happy Cookie making, stay warm!!

Valentine Birds Cupcake Toppers

A few weeks back I got a box of goodies from Reynolds full of some of my favorites designs of StayBrite baking cups and parchment paper.
The perfect gift for a baker like me.

I can't even imaging my baking without parchment paper?, for us cookie bakers, parchment paper is a must have in our kitchen. From lining our cookie sheets to rolling our cookie dough, not to mention minimizing the mess-toss the paper and we are done!

With Valentines's Day around the corner,I decide to put good use to the foil cupcake liners, which by the way, you don't even need a cupcake pan, put them directly in a cookie sheet, fill with batter, bake them and that's it!

Staying with the Valentine theme, sweet little Valentine Bird cupcake toppers were the perfect addition to my cupcakes.

How to make Valentine Birds cupcake toppers

You will need:

white and pink fondant
tooth picks
small paint brush\water
small rolling pin
powder sugar
black food writer
sprinkles
frosted cupcakes
Ateco comma cutters
small heart shape cutter
fondant mat

-Cover your mat surface with powder sugar and using the rolling pin, roll your fondant thick.
-Cut the birds
-Pull the "head" of the bird up to give it more of a shape
-Wet the tooth pick and insert it in the topper

 -Roll the pink fondant and cut the hearts

-Attach the hearts to the birds with a dab of water. ( they will be the wings)

-Using a small piece of fondant,shape a small triangle for the bird's beak. Attach it with water

-Mark the eye

 -Sprinkle the cupcakes with your favorite sprinkles

-Insert the toppers. 

There you have it, Valentine Bird Cupcake toppers

Marshmallow Heart Pops-Sweet Crafts with your kids

Today I am channeling my dear friend Meaghan from The Decorated Cookie Blog. She is the master of marshmallows on a stick and always come with the most easy and kid friendly ideas.

 I found these heart marshmallows at the store and thought that they would be cute for my little Cami to have some fun time creating a sweet treat for her Kindergarten friends.

To make these super easy and kid friendly-almost mess free-Marshmallow pops you will need:

.heart marshmallows

.chocolate candy melts

.cute straws or pops sticks

.sprinkles

bags and ribbon ( optional)

Melt candy melts in the microwave

Dip the tip of the straw in the candy melts and insert into the marshmallow

Let the pops set for a few minutes

Dip a small spoon in the candy melts and coat the marshmallow

Drop sprinkles ( one of my daughter's favorite part of the process)

After the candy melts have set on the marshmallows, wrap in a clear cello bag and tie with a ribbon.

You will have a happy face from your little one!!

I loveeeee these straws, I got them at Target from the $1 bin.

I hope you all are having a fabulous week, thank you for stopping by!