Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies

I love sugar cookies! I don’t make them very often because I really like to eat them. And I know that it takes no time at all to pile up the extra calories. Yu-um! We never got around to making sugar cookies last Christmas. I definitely don’t want that to ever happen again. It was something we all missed. Since we’ve been craving them, we decided that Valentine’s Day is as good of a day as any to make some! But, with a Valentine theme, of course!

Making the cookie part is about as standard as you can get.

If you’re dying for a good sugar cookie recipe, this one is my favorite! It’s my mom’s recipe. I have no idea where she got it. It’s written on a very used index card. They turn out super soft every time!

1 C butter shortening
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1/4 C milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 C sifted flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Mix the shortening , sugar and eggs. Stir in the milk and vanilla. Sift together all of the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet until it makes a stiff dough. Roll out to 1/4” thickness and cut into shapes. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Phew! Got your sugar cookies made? You didn’t eat all the dough did you? That may very well be my favorite part. Now on to the frosting. Or should I say fondant?

This is a really simple way to make homemade marshmallow fondant. Here’s what you need:

Mini Marshmallows
Powdered Sugar
Food Coloring

And if you really want to be adventurous, you can flavor the fondant! This is my favorite brand of flavoring:

I’ll give you the recipe for a large and a small batch of fondant. I made 4 small batches for these cookies. It made plenty for each color! I even had some left over that my kids kept sneaking little bites of.

Small Batch:

1 C mini marshmallows
1 Tbsp water
2 C powdered sugar
(and if you’re using flavoring, add about 1/4 tsp)
a few drops of food coloring

Large Batch:

1 16 oz bag of mini marshmallows
2 Tbsp water
1 2 lb bag of powdered sugar
(for the flavoring, add about 1 tsp)
a few drops of food coloring

Here’s how you make it.

Add the marshmallows, water and flavoring to a microwave safe bowl.

For the small batch, microwave it for 20 seconds and then 10 seconds at a time until the marshmallows are melted. For the large batch, microwave it for a minute and then 10 seconds at a time until it’s melted. You want it to look like this:

This is when you want to add the food coloring. I know that all of the cake decorating blogs and websites tell you that you can add it to white already made fondant. It’s true. You can. But, it’s a lot more work to mix it consistently and you get food coloring on your hands.

After the color is mixed really good, add the powdered sugar. Then, Mix! Mix! Mix!!! It will take a few minutes for it to lose it’s stickiness. Once it gets thicker, you can use your hands to knead it.

It should be like play dough when it’s ready to use.

If you’re making several batches, make sure to keep the finished ones covered so they don’t dry out. If for some reason one does get dried out, just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds and it will refresh it.

To roll the fondant out, use powdered sugar underneath of it so it doesn’t stick to the counter.

Use the SAME cookie cutter you used to cut the cookies out (after you wash it, of course)!

To adhere the fondant to the cookies, you need to spread a tiny bit of water on the back of the fondant. It works sort of like a “glue”.

Now for the fun part…writing on them! You need to get some food markers. They’re really so fun!

I used the pink marker on all of the cookies. Then, just write fun messages!

These were a huge hit with the kids! I was the coolest mom in the whole neighborhood for a whole day because of these babies! Happy Valentine’s everyone! U Rock 4 Ever!!