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Xoxo Sugar Cookies for Valentine's Day

If you want to surprise your lovey this Valentine's Day, make a few sugar cookies and quickly decorate them using a combination of royal icing, and a cake decorator's gold highlighter.  There is no need to spend endless amounts of time in the kitchen piping elaborate designs on cookies to show how much you love your significant other.  A base coat of tasty royal icing, some brushstrokes of a superb highlighter, and voila!  


Let's jump right into this year's Valentine's Xoxo cookies because you're going to want to make some for the love(s) of your life.


Bake your cookies using a reliable sugar cookie recipe.  As you can see, I cut out dozens of hearts.    


For this project, I only used three colors to pipe onto the cookies.  White, red and light pink royal icing were the colors I wanted to work with.


There is something magical about seeing a tray full of iced cookies that are waiting to dry.  That glossy, wet look is out of this world!

Unfortunately, during humid weather (such as what we're experiencing here in Philadelphia) this part cannot be rushed.


Once the bases are completely dry, add some gold highlighter into a small container and either add, drop by drop, clear lemon extract or unflavored vodka.  You want to mix it with a small paint brush until you have a smooth color.

For my cookies, I centered the XOXO and left the letters to dry completely. The cookies can be left as is if you wish.


I decided to add a bead of icing, in the same color as the base, to each cookie. I used a #1 piping tip to create the border.


Once the cookies dry completely, they can be packaged up in boxes, clear cellophane bags, a platter or even some cake stands.  It's up to you.


These joined hearts were rather whimsical.  Each heart was given a base color, and while the icing was wet, I drew the colors in opposite directions as shown. As soon as the bases dried, I painted the same XOXO onto them, and finished each cookie with a bead of icing.  




Done and done!  It's up to you how you want to surprise your loved ones this Valentine's Day, but make sure to include something sweet, as per tradition. Make them bright, make them tasty.  Send the love of your life some hugs and kisses this February 14th.  


Xoxo,
David  

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