Conversation Heart Cookies

THESE cookies were what caused my inspiration for the rest of the post! 

Cute, right? I signed up to make cookies for L&J's Valentine party!

I had a recipe for homemade shortbread cookies and I desperately wanted to try them. However, when I read this post and questioned Jill on whether or not the cookies would keep their form AS WELL AS considering that 4 and 5 year olds would be eating these cookies, I chose to bake the below Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix instead.

I bought these adorable heart-shaped cookie cutters. I LOVED them because they offered MORE than just the traditional heart-shaped cutter. My favorite was the scalloped cutter.

Directions were simple.

Mix ONE egg, 1/3 cup of butter, and 1 tablespoon of flour in a bowl.  

Roll out dough.  I rolled the dough onto parchment paper and LEFT the parchment paper on the pan.  I cooked the cookies on the parchment paper.  

Cut cookies with your favorite cutter.

Then I made some royal icing.  The top photo, where I outlined the cookie, acts as a "barrier" frosting. Hard royal icing that creates a barrier for the colored royal icing to stay secure in. FYI, in my opinion, royal icing is a ROYAL PAIN. I am NOT a fan of royal icing.  It was not a simple task.  That's probably the LAST time I will try a baking project like this. 

First, I wrote the twins' classmates names in the center of the cookies, with edible marker, but it looked awful to me.  So instead, I traced my handwriting with egg nog white chocolate.  These didn't turn out perfect, but the photo didn't do the best job capturing the finished product. I think the kids will love them anyway.