This Rose Heart Cookies decorating tutorial is courtesy of our contributor Cherylin…When I started cookie decorating and was trying to the best flavor for my cookies and icing, I was finding that a lot of decorated cookies call for a shortbread cookie because of how sweet royal icing is. Up until then I had used a sugar cookie recipe, which I’ve found compliments the royal icing really well, so I decided not to change the sugar cookie recipe I was using because it is just that good. It is from one of my mother’s black and white hand illustrated cookbooks and it is fantastic.
Sugar Cookie Recipe:
This recipe yields 12-24 cookies depending on size.
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1½ sticks (¾ cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups flour
- Cream sugar and butter in mixer until fluffy.
- Add egg, vanilla and salt. Mix thoroughly.
- Add flour (I add ½ cup at a time to make sure it is mixed correctly). Mix until dough forms.
- Take the ball of dough and flatten it into a patty. Wrap in foil or saran wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour, roll out dough with a floured rolling pin on a floured surface and cut shapes. Reroll dough and cut out shapes until dough runs out. *note: cut the most intricate shapes the first roll out of dough. The more you roll out the dough, the more likely it will spread.
- Refrigerate shapes on tray for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325°F
- Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Royal Icing Recipe:
My favorite royal icing recipe is Sweetopia’s. It firms quickly and yields enough for roughly 3 of my cookie doughs. I have halved and quartered it as well for small batches and it works perfectly.
Rose Heart Cookies – What You’ll Need:
- Heart with arrow cookie cutter, found in the 101 Wilton Cookie Cutter Set
- 3 – #14 or #16 tips (for flowers)
- 1 – #2 tip (for base filling)
- 4 pastry bags and couplers
- Wilton pink gel food coloring
- Toothpick or PMS Scribe Tool
- TMP Super Gold
- Everclear, vodka or lemon juice (Everclear works best)
- Paint brush
- Parchment paper
Once the cookies are baked and cooled, prepare the royal icing.
Separate the icing into 4 parts: white for the base and 3 equal parts for the pinks.
Add Wilton Pink to each of the 3 separated icings for the flowers, adding slightly more color to each successive pink to make a gradient effect. Keep this icing stiff.
Thin the white icing to 20 second icing, as explained by Sweet Sugarbelle
Take the white and outline and fill the heart shape.
Allow to dry several hours then pipe the arrow details.
While the base icing is drying, lay out a sheet of parchment paper to create the rose transfers.
Take one of the pinks with the #14 or 16 tip, and make a dab straight down.
Then create a circle around the center dab you created.
Sometimes you get little points when you pull the bag up. Just take a toothpick or scribe tool and push the point back down while still wet.
Pipe about half of each color onto the parchment paper and save the other half of each color for the cookie base. Allow these to dry a few hours and they will slide right off the parchment paper. (tip: they dry quicker under a fan)
Once the white base icing and royal icing transfers have dried, take the lightest color and pipe a line or two of roses.
Then follow up by piping the middle pink a row or two of roses.
And then finish with the darkest / deepest pink.
Place some hardened icing roses on top of the wet flowers to add an additional layer of depth to the bouquet.
Take a small amount of Everclear, vodka or lemon juice and mix with a very small amount of TMP’s Super Gold dust. (Everclear works best in my opinion). The alcohol will evaporate, leaving only the liquified powder. Brush on over the arrow. If the gold looks too “thin” or runny, use less liquid. If you wait, it will start to evaporate in your dish so be patient until the consistency is right.
We’d like to send a big THANK YOU to Cherylin for sharing this creative cookie decorating tutorial with us. Follow her on Instagram for even more creative cookie decorating ideas.