I’m a little early, but one of my favorite holidays is Valentine’s Day and I love all of the sweet treats involved. If you have been following my website for a while now, you know I absolutely love sugar cookies, and for some reason I think they taste better in the shape of hearts. Perfectly frosted with pink and white buttercream icing, these heart shaped cookies are so adorable and pretty, you won’t want to eat them!

This sugar cookie recipe is super-simple to bake and decorate in a big batch (because we know you’ve got a lot of love to give). The same three components — sugar-cookie hearts, buttercream icing, and food coloring — produce wildly different results depending on the decorating method you choose. Each is easy enough for a kid making treats for the class, and all create one-of-a-kind artworks.

No one makes a better sugar cookie than my Grandma Hayes, so I continue to use her famous recipe time after time.  Even though I make these often, I still haven’t figured out how to not get frosting and sprinkles all over the kitchen! Piping on the frosting makes these cookies extra special and your Valentine will feel loved and admired when they see your sweet creation. As I’ve said in my previous sugar cookie posts, when adding sprinkles to the cookie do it over the sink… it helps decrease the chances of finding sprinkles in crazy places!

Ingredients:

Cookies:

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Frosting:

4 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/2 cup shortening

5 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack.
4. For frosting, in a large bowl, cream together the confectioners’ sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff. Color with food coloring if desired.
5. Now it is time to decorate! Frost cookies and sprinkle with sprinkles, if desired.