Happy Valentine's Day!!

Orders Filled with Extra Love💕

My Favorite Holiday!!

Valentine's Day has consistently topped the charts for my favorite holiday! Decadent desserts, pretty pinks, handfuls of hearts, lots of love?! It doesn't get much better than that! Now you might be thinking that it's ridiculous that my favorite holiday is Valentine's Day due to the fact that I have never even been in a committed relationship before. Who needs a boyfriend anyway? This day of love isn't just for those with a significant other. Rather, it is a day to tell the people in your circle that you LOVE and APPRECIATE them beyond belief! 

Take these smiley face cookies for example. My mom's first-grade teacher partner religiously orders cookies from me for her class on every holiday. It has become the little thing she does for her students each year. First graders most definitely aren't involved in romantic relationships, yet they still find so much joy in passing out and receiving sweet goodies from all of their classmates. By swapping Valentine's, the students are simply sharing their love for their friends and the teacher is sharing her love for her students. This genuine swapping of love is why I truly love Valentine's Day. 

Here are some throwback pictures of me on Valentine's Day over the years! 

What Did I Make This Year?!

Despite my busy schedule, I happily accepted three Valentine's Orders this year totaling just about 100 cookies. The hardest part about seasonal cookies is creating something different year after year. Especially when I have customers as mentioned above, it is crucial I find new, creative, and fresh ideas to make ordering yearly worth it. With the help of my mom, I had the best Valentine's assortment to date! Time to see the cookie line-up!!

--Valentine Cookie Highlight--

• Heart Eyes Emoji: For my first cookie design, I had to think of something both simple and kid-friendly. Let me just say, if little Libbey would have received one of these cookies, she would have been raving for weeks. 

• Colors: Light Pink and Deep Red
• Flooding Colors: Light Pink and Deep Red
• Piping Colors: Deep Red
• Materials: Scribe to pop air bubbles, a piping tip of choice, piping bags/bottles, fan (to prevent cratering)

*Cratering: This happens most often when working with royal icing flooding on your cookies and has everything to do with the surface tension on the cookies. If you don't have a constant airflow on the fresh flooding, the middle of the icing will cave in and often "break" the surface. Cratering has caused me heartbreak one too many times! Your house might be extremely cold due to the fan speed, but oh the things we do for cookies!! 

TOO CUTE!!

• Classic Rose: The small rose is one of the cookies that are part of my Valentine's assortment order.  I promise it is incredibly delicious!

• Colors: Deep Red and Forest Green mixed with Leaf Green
• Flooding Colors: Deep Red and Forest Green mixed with Leaf Green
• Piping Colors: Deep Red (I ran out of royal icing, but a green detail would definitely elevate this design)
• Materials: Scribe, a tip of choice, piping bags/bottles, a fan (creates a distinction on the stem)

Looks like you don't have to break the bank on a bouquet of roses this year!

• Lacy Hearts: I had one order this year where the client simply wanted hearts. She had no specific specifications, so I went with these jazzed-up heart shapes. Uncomplicated, but still adorable!

• Colors: Light Pink, Dark Pink, Lilac, True Purple, White
• Flooding: Light Pink, Dark Pink, Lilac, True Purple, White
• Piping: White
• Materials: Scribe, a thin tip of choice, piping bags/bottles, a fan (Don't dry too fast or else you will miss out on the wet-on-wet polka dot opportunity)

Simply Sweet!!

• Double Hearts: Double hearts mean double the love! These little dudes also played a part in my Valentine's assortment order! I was so close to throwing these cookies out when I finished flooding them. In my mind, I thought there was no going back, the damage had already been done. BUT then I added the piping detail and they turned out to be one of my favorite designs. Don't give up hope early on in the cookie process, you might regret it later. 

• Colors: Light Pink, Dark Pink, Lilac, True Purple, White, Deep Red
• Flooding: Light Pink, Dark Pink, Lilac, True Purple, Deep Red
• Piping: White
• Materials: Scribe, a thin tip of choice, piping bags/bottles, a fan (Helps with the heart distinction)

Cuteness Overload!

• X's and O's: I ordered these cutters just this year and I have been so excited to make them! They turned out magnificent! Packaged together in shiny cellophane...say no more! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

• Colors: Light Pink, Lilac, White
• Flooding: Light Pink, Lilac, and White
• Piping: White
• Materials: Scribe, projector if needed, a thin tip of choice, piping bags/bottles, a fan (Pay attention to the cratering again!!)

A Little Letter Layering? Yes, Ma'am!

• Altogether Now: Since we have picked apart every cookie design present in each order, we can look at them all together. One of my favorite parts of finishing a project is seeing how the sugar cookies interact with each other on a tray! Some cookies clash together and others complement their neighbor in the perfect way! Have fun with arranging, there is no correct layout!

Picture Perfect and Social Media Ready!

A Labor of Love!

How fun was that?! I am a little biased because I made them, but they are filled so full of holiday love! Cookies have been a great way for me to show my love to those that mean the most to me over the years. I am so happy that others can do the same by investing in these cute cookies! I hope you all have a fantastic Valentine's Day and let your loved ones know how special they are to you!!