Royal Icing Heart Shape Cookies with Ombre swirl effect
that is perfect for Valentine’s Day!
Still thinking of what to make for Valentines Day… these pretty heart shape cookies will be the perfect edible gift for your date. I was trying to play around with the royal icing and it just happen to achieve that nice streaks ( as you see in the picture above). So I decided to share with you the process on how i made them!
First to get started on these heart shape cookies, you’ll need the following basic tools/ ingredients:
Edible food colouring( I use Wilton’s Rose)
Toothpicks
A bowl
A batch of Royal icing ( Recipe below)
A batch of your favourite Sugar Cookies for frosting (Cookie recipe below)
How to go about making these heart shape cookies?
First up, you’ll need a batch of Sugar cookies that are already baked, cooled and ready to be decorated. You can’t use cookies that are hot from the oven. For this recipe, I decided to use my favourite Gingerbread Cookies. Recipe for this cookie recipe is also included below.
Next up we need to create some color in the royal icing. Place a small amount of royal icing into a bowl. Spoon out some of the desired coloring onto a plate so it’s easier to add more coloring as you go without contaminating the entire bottle. Use a toothpick and take some food gel and swirl it around the royal icing frosting. Create random waves and pattern. If color is too light, dip toothpick with more coloring and repeat the process until you are happy.
Dip the top of the heart shape cookie ( The smoother side that you wanna frost) into the icing with random swirls. Let the excess frosting drip off. You can see that there are streaks going from top to the bottom of the cookie in my photo.. To achieve this effect. Hold the cookie upright when you are letting the excess frosting drip off. If you want the swirls to go from right to left or left to right, tilt the cookie that direction when draining off the excess frosting. Gravity will cause the frosting to flow in the way you tilt the cookie… Get it?
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If all else fails, you can always use a toothpick to draw the lines on. Just make sure your royal icing is still wet so as to prevent blotchy patches from forming. You’ll perfect the design as you go along.. My first few heart shape cookies look like crap too.. But when you get the hang of it, it really is a fun activity to do with your kids.
Ok Recipe recipe time.. I use my trusty Gingerbread cookie recipe for this heart shape cookies.. You can use any of your favourite cookie recipe but it shouldn’t contain nuts or choc chips as you want the surface of the cookie to be as smooth as possible if not the royal icing won’t “Stick” as well and you will get small choc chip bumps or “ Pimples” like what some might call it.
Moving on to the Best Part- The Recipe.
Do feel free to tag me on instagram @Sherbakes or comment below if you have tried the recipe 🙂
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A sweet heart shape cookie decorated with royal icing swirls
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp mixed spice
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3/8 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 large egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cup powdered or icing sugar
- 1 egg white
- 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tbsp water
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In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, mixed spice together
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In another bowl, beat butter, brown sugar and egg on medium speed until fluffy
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Add molasses and vanilla and continue to mix well
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Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until smooth
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Divide dough into half and wrap each in plastic wrap and put in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours or overnight
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Preheat oven to 375DegF. At the same time, prepare baking pans by lining with non stick baking paper or parchment paper
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Roll dough btw 2 plastic wrap so it wont stick to the rolling pin until 1/4 inch thick
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Cut out cookies with heart shape cookie cutter and place on baking sheet. Make sure each cookie is about 1-2 inches apart.
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Bake cookies for 7-10 mins. Remove from oven and let cool completely before decorating
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In a mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar, egg whites and cream of tar tar
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Mix until combined then add in vanilla and beat until icing is thick and sticky like white glue.
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Add in 1/2 tbsp of water and beat on high for about 2-3 mins
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You can color the icing sugar to your desired color ( I use Wilton's Rose food gel) at this point in time
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Make sure to place a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the icing to prevent a skin from forming if you are not using the icing immediately.
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Decorate cookies with icing and let dry for at least a few hours before packing them.
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