Sugar Cookies: Valentines Edition

Ahh, the iconic sugar cookies. I was asked to make two dozen Valentine's-themed sugar cookies. I will be honest, as I was with my client, sugar cookies are not my forte, especially when it comes to decorating. I always do my best, as I do with everything. Thankfully, she was not worried one bit about how they looked. She simply wanted some cookies to have for the holiday. However, I wanted them to look as amazing as they could. I had full creative freedom, so I got to work. I drew up some designs and did the math to double the dough. I had almost everything ready. I just had to make a quick run to the store for a few things, and I was ready to start baking!

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the process of making sugar cookies, but it takes some time. It doesn't take long to make the dough, but after it's rolled, it needs to be chilled. This makes it easier to cut the dough, and it prevents the cookies from spreading in the oven. It's not too bad; it's the icing that takes the longest. Making royal icing isn't hard. It's literally 3 ingredients, 4 if you count the food coloring. Decorating the cookies takes a lot of time, but the time it takes the icing to set is the longest part of the whole process. The icing needs to set for at least 12 hours. It's better if they set longer, though. The longer they sit, the drier the icing will be. I only had a few days to get everything done, so I got to work!

I ran to the store mainly for packaging and cookie cutters, but, as always, left the store with more than I went for. I found these cute cookie boxes with big windows. I got some food coloring I couldn't live without, found some cute Valentine's paper to use in the boxes to make it more festive, and I went ahead and picked up more cooling racks. I had a lot of cookies to bake! My arms were getting full, so I scurried on to the front to pay and get home to start this process. On my way home, I realized that I had forgotten to leave butter and eggs out to get to room temperature. It's rather important to have room-temperature ingredients, especially the butter. Once I got home, I laid those ingredients out and sketched out more cookie designs, after washing all the new things. The cookie cutters I found had many different heart sizes, so I figured out which ones I wanted to use and how many of each. I wanted to use three different sizes to give the boxes a little variety. About an hour or so went by, and I checked my ingredients. Everything was close enough to room temperature, so I finally got to work!

I gathered all the ingredients for the dough and started mixing. I doubled the dough to get as many cookies as I could. Everything is mixed, and I turned the dough out onto a piece of lightly floured parchment. I like to roll my dough in between two pieces of parchment paper. It helps keep the dough smooth, and it's easy to clean up. I got rolling, and my dough started squishing out the sides of the parchment! I was bewildered and didn't understand why that was happening. I tried to pull the top piece of parchment off, and the dough stuck and split in half! What! It dawned on me that I had doubled all of the ingredients except for the flour. I guess I got distracted between the phone ringing and the baby crying. And the kicker is, I premeasured my ingredients! Talk about the ultimate facepalm.

The dough was too far gone to be saved, so it wound up in the trash. I was so upset, and I hated to start a bake this way. Especially knowing I was on a bit of a time crunch. I took a second to breathe and adjusted my schedule. I laid out more butter and eggs, and extra just in case, so they could reach room temperature, and I got the baby to sleep. She was extra cranky due to her previous doctor's visit and because she is cutting teeth. I understand. I would be cranky, too, after shots and teeth ripping through my gums. It took a while to get her to sleep, but once I eventually did, it was time to get back to work. My second attempt at cookie dough, which I doubled again and made sure all my ingredients were doubled this time, went so much better. The dough was a fantastic consistency when I rolled it, and I was ecstatic. Feeling much more confident than before, the dough made its way to the freezer. I got my cookie sheets out, preheated the oven, and set out the cooling racks. I had everything set up for smooth sailing. After about 15 minutes, I got the dough out and started cutting the cutest heart-shaped cookies. I was so excited to finally get these baked. They cut beautifully and went into the oven. I gathered the scraps, rolled them out, and put them back into the freezer so I could cut more.

After repeated steps, I got the last bit of scraps rolled and into the oven, but still faced a problem. I didn't have enough cookies to make two dozen. So, I had to make more dough. I was glad I set out extra eggs and butter. By the time the last batch of heart cookies was coming out of the oven, the little one was already awake and squirming around in her bed. I quickly flattened the cookies, got them onto the cooling rack, and decided to spend a little time with her before making more cookie dough. Needless to say, I finished baking all the cookies around 11 that night. But that's okay. They needed all night to cool. I ended up making two double batches of dough, and I had some extra cookies, which gave me a bit of a safety net.

The next day, I had some help with the baby, so I could decorate cookies. She was such a fuss-butt, so I was very thankful for the help. I don't know if you've tried to decorate sugar cookies with a squirmy baby in your arms, but it isn't easy. I got the royal icing made, colors dyed, and in piping bags, ready to go! I had about 30 cookies to decorate, so I got to it! I started with the smallest-sized hearts. I had more of those than the rest and wanted to use a couple of those to get into the groove of things. I like to make extra cookies to practice, and so I can pick the best-looking ones, or if one gets messed up or broken. It didn't take me long to get into the flow, and I was having so much fun trying new techniques and getting lost in the icing. I think it was the first time I was really enjoying icing cookies. Granted, I haven't decorated too many cookies in my day, but this was going much smoother than the previous times I had attempted these cookies. This is why I love it when customers give me total creative freedom over bakes. I hit that flow state, and creativity just floods out of me. Before I knew it, hours had passed, and I was icing the final cookie at 3 am! I couldn't believe it!

By the time I realized it was so late, and I wrapped up the final cookie, I had absolutely no motivation to clean the kitchen. It wasn't going anywhere. I left the cookies to dry, washed my hands, and headed to bed. Getting up the next morning, it was a gorgeous sight: walking into the kitchen to see the warm, morning sunlight graze over the beautiful, dry cookies on the wire racks. I was so proud of how they all turned out, and so excited to see the look on my customer's face when I delivered them later that day. I went ahead and unfolded the boxes, adding the cute heart paper to the bottoms of them. I had to add as much festive flair as I could. Y'all should know me by now; I go as much over the top as I can for my clients. Everyone deserves extra special care! And you never know when they need that little extra. It goes a long way and is never forgotten. I carefully added the cookies to the boxes. Packing them with as much care as I possibly could. They got closed, a logo sticker was put in the middle of the window, and sealed with a heart-shaped sticker. They looked absolutely perfect, and I was beyond proud of myself. I don't talk about myself with confidence often, but I was very proud of these cookies.

Delivering them to my customer later that day, she was more than happy with them! And that makes me even happier about the cookies. She was so excited to take them home to share with her family. It's those little moments that make me love my job even more. Those moments of pure joy are what keep me going. That's my goal: to spread little sweet pieces of love and happiness wherever and whenever I can. It truly fills my heart and soul. Spread sweetness when you can, make others happy, and help out when you can. It cleanses your soul in ways words can't express.

As always, thank you all so much for being here. It means just as much as those little moments. I love being here and sharing my stories and recipes with you. I greatly enjoy being able to express myself in the kitchen and then have the opportunity to share it all with you here, like this recipe. And I cannot believe all the support and how much my journey has already grown. It is truly heartwarming, and I will forever be grateful! Check out the Facebook and Instagram pages for exclusive videos and original posts from my kitchen! I've been thinking about creating a TikTok page... Would you guys like that? Let me know with an email or comment on a recent post. Thank you again for being here. Sending all of my love from my home to yours. Take care, y'all! <3

Practice Makes Progress