For those of you who want to put a little bit more thought and effort into your Valentine’s gift, consider baking your own Valentine cookies. I’ve been a fan of sugar cookies for many occasions. As long as you have the appropriate shaped cookie cutters, you can make sugar cookies for most holidays or celebrations. They are the perfect sweet gifts in a pinch.

I have a confession. I don’t make my own sugar cookie dough. I mean why would you? After searching for sugar cookie recipes and realizing all the crazy amount of ingredients that are required, it’s best and easiest (for me as a mom of two rugrats) to buy a whole roll of ready-made sugar cookie dough for less than 3 dollars. I like Pillsbury.

Roll the dough about 1/4 inch thick, cut into desired shapes and bake at 325 degrees for about 20 mins.

The one thing about sugar cookies is that they tend to spread during baking. This results in the cookies losing their shapes. One method that has helped is putting the cookies in the fridge for about 10 mins after cutting and prior to baking.

Remember to cool the cookies on a cookie cooling rack before decorating them. I prefer icing over frosting because it hardens when dry. Icing is very easy to make- just add liquid to powder sugar. You can use lemon juice or just water. You’ll be amazed, but you won’t need that much liquid at all. Play with the consistency- I like my icing on the thicker side because it’s easier to spread and won’t drip as much. My suggestion is to start with about 2 tablespoons of liquid and keep whisking in powder sugar until the desired consistency is reached. Unfortunately, I didn’t measure the liquid to powder sugar ratio so I can’t tell you how much I used.

I also made pink frosting by adding just a tiny drop of red food color into my icing (water & powder sugar). While the icing is still wet, add the sprinkles. Allow icing to harden in the fridge for one hour.

Hope you’ll give this easy but oh so sweeet recipe a try!

In Instagram news- 1. the abode of Malin Persson #dailyinspo 2. breakfast today, simple open-faced sandwich consisted of egg & avocado 3. current desk situation 4. where we wed: MIT chapel

For my full Instagram feed, please click Here.

Have a great weekend!