These Valentine's Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing are easy enough for children to do but look professional. This is a fun activity for both kids and adults!

Many years ago, I was asked to lead a Royal Icing decorating demonstration at a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting. Because the meeting was in late January, I decided to do cute Valentine's Day heart cookies.
My first experience using a wet-on-wet technique with royal icing was with these Easter Cookies. I then used the same technique for the Butterfly Cookies and then with the Dragonfly Cookies.
I love the patterns you can create with this technique, especially the little hearts it can make when you drag a toothpick through a dot of icing.
Because my sister and my Mom helped decorate the Easter Cookies, I knew this technique works well for royal icing beginners. I just needed to make sure I structured the activity to fit into a short time frame and also removed a lot of the trickier or more time consuming steps. I explain how I did this below.
We had so much fun at this meeting! I was so impressed with the creative designs everyone came up with!

When I got home from the meeting, I let my girls decorate some of the leftover cookies, and they had fun doing it. At the time, they were very young: ages 3 and 6.
My Dad has bear-like hands that lack flexibility and agility, but even he decorated a cookie using this technique!
Having the icing in large squeeze bottles, rather than piping bags, makes this an easily accessible activity for any age group. I'm thinking children's birthday parties, moms' nights, or even for a retirement community or nursing home group.
As a retired art teacher, my grandma volunteered at a nursing home and planned the crafts for the residents. She sometimes let us do some of the crafts. These cookies are no more complicated than those crafts. Instead of a bottle of glue, it's a bottle of royal icing!
Materials
- 1 small round piping tip, such as a Wilton #5
- 1 plastic tip coupler (not required, just recommended)
- Disposable piping bags
- 3 plastic squeeze bottles
- Toothpicks
- 1 batch of your favorite shortbread or sugar cookies
- 1 batch of Easy Royal Icing
- Pink and red food coloring gel, red no-taste gel preferred
Planning a Cookie Decorating Party
When planning for this Moms meeting, I had to make sure the decorating was something they could do in a matter of minutes because I was hosting just one station of a multi-station event that the moms would rotate through.
I had to have enough of the elements prepared ahead of time and ready to go. For that reason, I baked the sugar cookies and did the outlining step at home the day before the event.
The morning of the event, I prepared red, pink and white flood-consistency icing and put them in plastic squeeze bottles. This allowed each mom at the meeting to flood her cookie the way she wanted, then use toothpicks to drag through the dots to make hearts.
I did one sample cookie the day before where I created a different pattern on each side of it to give examples of how it would look. This allowed the cookie to fully dry before I had to transport it to the meeting.
This worked very well, and the moms had enough time to flood and decorate their cookies. Each one came up with a unique design, despite being limited to 3 color choices.
Of course, this would work with even more colors if you had enough squeeze bottles, which I did not!
Roll and Bake the Cookies
Roll your sugar cookie dough to ¼-inch thick for a sturdy cookie. I like using these Cut Out Sugar Cookies because they are sturdier for royal icing.
Because of the higher sugar content, they are not a soft sugar cookie, so if you prefer a soft cookie, consider these Shortbread Cookies. They may be more fragile, which might not be ideal depending on the age of the person decorating them.
Bake the cookies according to the instructions in your recipe and let cool completely before outlining with royal icing.
Outline the Cookies
First, you will make a batch of Easy Royal Icing. Then, you will remove some of the "stock" icing to a bowl and add small amounts of warm water until you reach outline consistency icing. I have more details on how to do this in this post.
Transfer the icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a small round tip.
Outline each cookie with the white outline consistency icing.
Allow the icing outline to dry overnight before proceeding with flooding.
Prepare the Flood Consistency Icing
To prepare flood consistency icing, add small amounts of water to your stock of royal icing until you get a thin icing that runs easily. You don't want it to be too thin or when it dries, it will pit. You'll need it to be thin enough to flow out of the squeeze bottles without too much effort. See this post for more details on flood consistency icing.
Pour ⅓ of your flood consistency icing into a squeeze bottle and ⅓ into each of two bowls. Tint one bowl with pink food coloring gel and the other bowl with red food coloring gel. Transfer the pink and red flood icing to squeeze bottles.
You're now ready to do the wet on wet technique. If you will not be doing the flooding right away, make sure to close the lids on your squeeze bottles or wrap the opening tightly in plastic wrap to avoid crusting.
I wrap my bottles with plastic wrap and then wrap a rubber band around several times to secure.
Flooding and Wet on Wet Technique
Keep in mind that depending on the temperature and humidity in your work space, the icing may dry fast, so it's best to work as quickly as possible through these steps.
First, choose your color you want to be the main color of the cookie.
Fill the entire space inside the outline. You can use a toothpick to help guide the flood to the edges. This will help you avoid putting so much that it spills over the outline.

Then add dots of the color you would like to be the small hearts.

You can do a single color, multiple colors, or even an initial larger dot and then a smaller dot of another color on top of that dot which will end up giving the effect of a heart within a heart.

Drag a toothpick through the dots to connect them. This creates a heart pattern.

You can do them all going the same direction or switch direction if you prefer.


This is where you can really get creative with your patterns.

Allow the cookies to air dry at room temperature for about 24 hours to completely set the icing. This timing is ideal if you plan to package the cookies in treat bags.

For eating, you can eat them anytime, even with partially-set icing. They just might be a little messier!

Storage
I never recommend stacking dry royal icing cookies, as the grease from the bottom of the cookie can transfer to the icing of the cookie below it and ruin the design.
Store the cookies either in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature, or if you need to stack the cookies, add a layer of aluminum foil between the layers of cookies.
I use aluminum foil as it prevents the grease from soaking through. I have had problems with the grease soaking through waxed paper and even parchment, although not as much as waxed paper.
Gluten Free Option
Use a gluten free sugar cookie recipe. The royal icing is naturally gluten free. As with any food intolerance, check your packaging for contaminants.
📖 Recipe

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Equipment
- 1 Small round piping tip such as a Wilton #5
- 1 Plastic tip coupler recommended
- 1 Disposable piping bag
- 3 Plastic squeeze bottles 16 ounce size
- toothpicks
Ingredients
- 1 batch of your favorite shortbread or sugar cookies
- 1 batch of Easy Royal Icing
- Pink and red food coloring gel (red no-taste gel preferred)
Instructions
Roll and Bake the Cookies:
- Roll your sugar cookie dough to ¼-inch thick for a sturdy cookie suitable for decorating.
- Bake the cookies according to the instructions in your recipe and let cool completely before outlining with royal icing.
Outline the Cookies:
- Make a batch of Royal Icing. Remove some of the "stock" icing to a bowl and add small amounts of warm water until you reach outline consistency icing.
- Transfer the icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a small round tip.
- Outline each cookie with the white outline consistency icing.
- Allow the icing outline to dry overnight before proceeding with flooding.
Prepare the Flood Consistency Icing:
- Add small amounts of water to your stock of royal icing until you get a thin icing that runs easily.
- Pour ⅓ of your flood consistency icing into a squeeze bottle and ⅓ into each of two bowls. Tint one bowl with pink food coloring gel and other bowl with red food coloring gel. Transfer the pink and red flood icing to squeeze bottles.
- If you will not be doing the flooding right away, make sure to close the lids on your squeeze bottles or wrap the opening tightly in plastic wrap to avoid crusting.
Flooding and Wet on Wet Technique:
- Plan to work quickly through these steps, as the icing can dry fast depending on the temperature and humidity of the room. Fill the entire space inside the outline with the color of flood icing that you want to be the main color of the cookie. You can use a toothpick to help guide the flood to the edges. This will help you avoid putting so much that it spills over the outline.
- Add dots of the color you would like to be the small hearts. You can do a single color, multiple colors, or even an initial larger dot and then a smaller dot of another color on top of that dot which will end up giving the effect of a heart within a heart.
- Drag a toothpick through the dots to connect them. This creates a heart pattern. You can do them all going the same direction or switch direction if you prefer.
- Allow the cookies to air dry at room temperature for about 24 hours to completely set the icing. This timing is ideal if you plan to package the cookies in treat bags.
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