7 Easy Ways to Decorate Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies
A plate of frosted Valentine's Day sugar cookies is the perfect holiday treat for any celebration. Use our best sugar cookie recipe to make a big batch of heart cookies. Once they're baked, decorate them with chocolate, sprinkles, icing, and even edible paper. Need a last-minute Valentine's Day dessert? Dress up purchased sugar cookies with these easy decorating techniques. Add a handmade Valentine's Day card and you're all set for the big day!
How to Decorate Valentine's Day Cookies
Supplies Needed
One batch of sugar cookie dough
Melting chocolate
Food dye
Bowls
Spoons
Cardstock
Scissors
Sprinkles
Edible Decorating Paper
Heart-shaped punch
Candy Pearls
Piping bag with small tip
Toothpicks
Candy Sugar Roses
1. Chocolate-Dipped Valentines Cookies
These chocolate-dipped Valentine's Day sugar cookies are so easy, anyone can make them! Make your own melting chocolate or use purchased chocolate candy melts. In a large bowl, melt chocolate or candy melts until smooth. Dip half of a heart cookie into the melted chocolate then place the dipped cookies onto parchment paper to cool.
Editor's Tip: Be sure the sugar cookies are completely cooled before decorating so your chocolate will set.
2. Stencil Sprinkle Cookies
Before decorating your cookies, create a custom stencil using heavy paper. Trace a shape (we used a heart!) onto cardstock and cut out the center.
Once your cookies have cooled, frost them with any color buttercream. Before the icing dries, gently place your handmade stencil on the cookie and top with colorful sprinkles. Slowly remove the stencil to reveal your shape. Brush off any excess sprinkles and that's it!
Related: The Best Valentine's Day Dessert Recipes
3. Valentine Cookies Decorated with Edible Paper
One of our favorite ways to decorate sugar cookies is with edible paper. We frosted our heart-shape sugar cookies with pink frosting and decorated with small edible paper hearts. To make them, use a paper punch to gently punch out hearts from edible paper. After you frost the cookies, place edible paper hearts on top of the icing wherever you like. Make sure to decorate the cookies before the icing dries or the hearts won't stick.
4. Chocolate and Pearl Valentine's Day Cookies
Use chocolate candy melts to decorate these drizzled sugar cookies. Melt the chocolate according to the package directions, then spoon the chocolate into a small plastic bag or a piping bag with a small tip. If you're using a plastic sandwich bag, cut the corner about one-fourth of an inch and twist the bag to keep the chocolate at the tip of the bag. Squeeze gently to pipe melted chocolate onto each cookie in freeform diagonal lines. Place small pink pearl sprinkles on the melted chocolate drizzles and let cool completely.
Buy It: Wilton 1.72oz Pearls Sprinkles, $1.49, Target
5. Modern Color Block Cookies
We're loving these two-tone frosted sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. To make them, frost half of each cookie with light pink royal icing and let sit for a few minutes until the icing is set. Pipe the outline of the cookie's other half with dark pink royal icing, then fill it in. Piping the second color will create a straight border between the two colors, but you can frost the second half regularly if you like.
Related: Delicious Heart-Shaped Valentine's Day Treats
6. Marbled Cookies
To create a marbled effect, frost a cookie with white icing. Pipe thin lines of pink frosting diagonally across the cookie. Work quickly, both layers of frosting need to still be wet, drag a toothpick across the pink icing lines in the opposite diagonal direction, creating ripples across the icing. Repeat this technique across the entire cookie and let the marbled design harden before you package the cookies.
7. Sugar Rose Valentine Cookies
This might be the easiest sugar cookie decorating idea ever! Make sure your cookies are cooled before frosting, then frost with pink icing. Before the icing dries, place an edible floral decoration on top of the cookie. We used packaged roses made from sugar, but you can use any edible decoration you like.
Buy It: Wilton Rose Shaped Icing Decorations, $4.97, Walmart
