‘Tis the season for red, white, and pink everything, and these frosted buttercream cookies are no exception! Here are FOUR ways to decorate your Valentine’s Day heart cookies during this season of L.O.V.E!
We have a long-standing tradition of frosting sugar cookies along with a few of the main holidays throughout the year. Valentine’s Day is definitely one of them! The boys love to use different piping tips, different sprinkles, and go a little crazy with the amount of buttercream on each cookie heart. It’s a fun tradition we have together, and this year I thought I’d capture a few of the ones I personally made for this space! I hope one, if not all, designs catch your eye and inspire you to jump in the kitchen and frost some cookies while making memories. 🙂
COOKIE BASE:
First up, you’ll need a cookie base! For these cookies (the base heart cookies), I was given them from a dear friend to frost and enjoy. So no, this isn’t a cookie recipe post! I’m sorry, ahhh! But it is a tutorial on how to frost your Valentine’s heart cookies FOUR different ways! So bake up your favorite cut-out-sugar-cookies, whip up a batch of my vanilla buttercream, and hop right back on here for four beautiful buttercream cookie ideas.
BUTTERCREAM BLISS:
Your buttercream consistency is key for these designs. I used my favorite Vanilla Buttercream, and split the buttercream into three different bowls. For the red, I used Americolor Red Coloring gel and let it sit for over an hour to intensify in color. For the pink, I used “soft pink” by Americolor as well, and of course, I left the white buttercream white. If you’d like it to be more white, you can always use white coloring, or add touch of violet coloring to the mix (I’m talking a small toothpick prick) to mellow out the ivory/yellow color.
For the consistency, you’ll need medium to stiff consistency. You are going to be using very small piping tips, so don’t make it too stiff – or else your hands will get sore pretty quickly squeezing that piping bag! If your buttercream is too stiff, add in more heavy cream. If it’s too thin, add in more powdered sugar.
Let’s talk tips:
The piping tips are different! I used a few different ones for these designs. All of them are super accessible and are usually found at just about any baking/craft store. I will talk about each tip with each cookie it pertains to. Because these are smaller piping tips, I recommend using piping bags with couplers so you can easily switch tips when you need to from one cookie to the next For some (if not all) of these designs, you may need multiples of each tip.
Let’s dive in, shall we? Each cookie has a unique design, so there’s surely one you’ll love and feel inspired to try!
Ombre Shell DESIGN:
This one is so fun! I used THREE Wilton #32 piping tips, coupler and ring, and piping bag. You can always just one one tip and transfer the piping tips from piping bag to piping bag when switching colors for this design.
To begin, start with the white buttercream fitted with the #32 piping tip. Holding the piping tip straight over the cookie (perpendicular), squeeze down and then pull to the tip of the heart cookie. Make sure the “Shells” all turn the same direction. Repeat until you have an entire white section. Switch to pink and repeat method. Switch to red and repeat method. That’s it!
Here’s a video that helps show this process:
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ROSETTE SWIRL DESIGN:
For this darling design, you’re using that familiar tip #32 again! This time, you’re going to make little swirls alternating in color. I tried to make sure no colors were touching each other that were the same. To make sure you don’t have any “tails” on your rosettes, either tuck the rosette end under the neighboring rosette, or you can always stop squeezing before you end the swirl. I added on some white sprinkle spheres on top to make them a touch more elegant. I really love how they turned out, and would love to see this design in these colors on a cake someday in my kitchen!
Here’s a video of the rosette decorating process:
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OMBRE LINES DESIGN:
Next up, we have the classic ombre color design again, but this time instead of shells, we’re doing a line design that is super easy! Using the Wilton #5 piping tip (tiny circle), go back and forth starting at the heart’s tip with white, then pink, then red to cover the whole heart.
Here’s a quick video showing the process:
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BRAID DESIGN:
Last but certainly not least (mostly because this one is my personal favorite), we have this darling braid design! It’s made using a teeny tiny Wilton #16 piping tip. I have three, so it was easy to switch from color to color with each row. To make the braid, you are going to make a series of shells (see shell design above), but you are going to have the tails (the pull away) towards the middle instead of straight out. So criss-cross them over each other again and again. Line them up right next to each other, and you should have a little heart wrapped in a cozy Valentine’s Day buttercream sweater!
Here’s a quick video of the process below:
That’s it! I hope this inspires you to jump into your kitchen and make darling cookies with your family this Valentine’s Day – or just for fun anytime!
