If you remember my Painted Sugar Cookies from Christmas time, you might be excited that I’m back again with some delicious XOXO Sugar Cookies for Valentine’s Day. This go around, I wanted hand painted cookies that were still colorful, but more pastel. I LOVED the bright colors of my Christmas cookies, but I wanted to try something new with my watercolor cookie technique 😉 The result are these delicious XOXO Painted Cookies just in time for V-Day!
XOXO Painted Cookies For Valentine’s Day
Sugar Cookie Recipe
The first thing you will want to do is use a good sugar cookie recipe and cut out all your cookies. I mixed up my dough, let it sit overnight, then rolled out the dough, cut my cookies and baked them the next day.
Royal Icing Recipe
When the cookies were completely cooled (about 3 hours), I made a double batch of easy royal icing (I watered my down just a bit to make sure it was really smooth) and dipped all the cookies. Then, I let the royal icing set up for about 2 hours (possibly shorter if you live in a cooler/less humid place), making sure to place each cookie on a piece of wax paper so they wouldn’t stick.
Painting Cookies
Now, it’s time to paint your cookies! In order to get the best possible result, I recommend using food coloring gels. I can never find them in stores, so I recommend ordering them online. I also purchased inexpensive makeup brushes, because I couldn’t find regular paint brushes I liked in the sizes I wanted. I found that small makeup brushes (under $10 for 12 brushes) worked the best!
Easy Painted Cookies
To achieve the pastel tones for these cookies, I used more water and less food coloring gel and it worked great. The key is not using too much water to saturate (and break down) your royal icing, or too little water and getting a brighter tone than you might want for each cookie. I shared painting tips in my original post, but definitely let me know if you have questions!
The result? A big pile of L-O-V-E 🙂
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
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