I Heart You Cookies! (part 2)

Ok, so now I have all these pretty heart cookies that need to be decorated.  I whipped up a batch of royal icing (again following the recipe on Bake at 350).  I separated it out into 3 bowls for coloring - one white, one pink, and one purple.  I spooned some of the icing into my piping bags with a #3 tip attached and covered the rest in plastic wrap.  Then I piped around each of the hearts in either pink or purple icing.

After the outlining was finished, I thinned out the icing to create the "flood" icing.  I put this icing into squeezy bottles to use for filling in the outlined hearts.

I squeezed the icing onto the cookies then used a toothpick to spread it around to fill out the cookie.

I think I was being too stingy with the icing because I don't like the way you can still see the outline.  As I went on, I started using more icing and the cookies ended up looking smoother.  I also think I may have over-beat the icing when I was making it because it looked a little dry and brittle.

After I let the cookies dry for several hours, I went back over with the piping bag and added wording to the hearts.  I should have used a #1 piping tip but the smallest I had was a #3, so the writing came out a bit thick.  I still need to work on my piping skills, but I think these turned out pretty good for only my second try!

I personalized a heart for each of my co-workers and brought them into work this morning.  They were a hit!   Let's face it....even if you don't have a Valentine, everyone loves cookies!

Wishing you all a lovely V-Day!