Valentine Contest-Sweet Tweet Cookie Gif

Instructions

For the Cookies:
1. Prepare your Sugar Cookie Dough, chill and roll out on a floured surface.
2. Cut out several small heart shaped cookies, place on parchment lined pan and bake according to your recipe.
3. Cut out large heart shapes using the larger cookie cutter. Then cut in half with knife or pizza cutter. Bake according to recipe.
4. While cookies cool, make your royal icing as many colors as you like. I used white, red, pink and orange (very little orange as it's only for beaks). Put 1/3 to 1/4 of the "stiff" colored royal icing into piping bags with tips ( I used #2 or #1). Keep the tips covered so air does not dry them out. Then separate about 2/3 to 3/4 of each color and thin out to drizzling consistency. Place thinned icing into piping bags or piping bottles.
5. Once cookies are cool, outline the shapes with your "stiff" icing. Let dry for 20-30 minutes.
6. Flood the inside of the lined cookies with your thinned icing. *If you are making the little hearts with swirls or heart pattern as shown, this is the time to apply a second color of the thinned icing and spread with a toothpick.
7.Let dry for a short amount of time (5-10 minutes) then place your eyeballs onto the cookie very carefully. Some people use tweezers for accuracy.
8. Let dry overnight at this point. You can refrigerate your icing overnight in an airtight container or bag.
9. The next day, pipe on your wings and beaks.

To give as a gift, package in a ziploc (or similar) bag and print out a label the same width and fold in half (hot-dog direction) so you can staple it over the top of the bag to conceal the zipper. That way it doesn't matter if there's a blue or funny colored zipper, you won't see it! I made labels that read "Sweet Tweets 4 U!" For the Cookies:
1. Prepare your Sugar Cookie Dough, chill and roll out on a floured surface.
2. Cut out several small heart shaped cookies, place on parchment lined pan and bake according to your recipe.
3. Cut out large heart shapes using the larger cookie cutter. Then cut in half with knife or pizza cutter. Bake according to recipe.
4. While cookies cool, make your ...
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Difficulty:

Category: Food & Cooking

Type of item: Food

For: Unisex

Style: Holiday, Cute, Funky

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Materials

Sugar Cookie Dough, Royal Icing, Plastic Food Grade bag or zip baggie, Pre-made Royal Icing Eyes (*see tips on how to make your own in advance) and Heart Shaped Cookie Cutters (1 large, 1 small)

What was your inspiration?

The birds are mostly based off a design by SweetSugarBelle (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetsugarbelle/5590681832/in/photostream) I changed them a little by using eyeballs rather than just dots for eyes. I just love making birdie cookies, cake pops and other sweets.

What are you most proud of?

How cute they turned out!

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

If you decorate cookies often with royal icing, make some homemade eyeballs to keep for future projects with leftover icing. To do this, just line a cookie sheet with wax paper and pipe put lots and lots of rows of white dots. As you finish each row, go ahead and put your black pupil onto the eyes so you don't let the white setup too much. This way the black will "set-into" the white dot and look more like one piece. Let these dry completely, I recommend several days. They will be hard and firm. Then you can take them off the wax paper and put into a little Tupperware container and keep in your pantry for the whole year. Some people say these will last forever in a cool, dry dark place. However, I go through them way too often to vouch for that!