How to Decorate Valentine Heart Cookies

If you love a tasty sugar cookie with an absolutely lovely Valentine’s Day design, you’ve come to the right place! These delicious sugar cookies are tasty on their own, but with this beautiful design they’re going to wow that special someone!

Are Sugar Cookies a Valentines Day Thing?

Yes. . .and amen. Years ago I started a company called Nina’s Cakes and Cookies. (My grandchildren call me Nina. Hence, the name.) I was known for my sugar cookies, especially the hand-painted ones.

I have a particular memory of a Valentine’s Day bake-a-thon. I believe it was 2016. I (literally) stayed up all night decorating cookies.

A lot has changed since then! I no longer bake as a business. All of my baking these days is for this blog and for you, my readers.

I never vary from my original cut-out sugar cookie recipe. It’s absolutely the best for painted cookies. And I’ll be honest: 99% of the time I use royal icing to paint them.

This time, however? I wanted to use a simple buttercream. The design I had in mind required a 3D effect with the icing. So, I made the easiest buttercream ever and colored it in varying shades of pink and white.

The result? Well, see for yourself! I think they’re lovely!

Valentine’s Day Cookies Can be Gorgeous!

You will find a full printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. You’ll want to make and refrigerate the sugar cookie dough before using.

Roll your dough with a large rolling pin. Make sure it’s flat. You want the top of the cookies to be level. I use paint sticks as guides when I roll out my sugar cookie dough.

Cut cookies with heart cutters. Bake the cookies according to the instructions in the recipe card below.

Let’s Start Decorating!

Once cookies are cooled, it’s time to start decorating.

Make the frosting in advance, as well. You’ll mix it up in a large bowl.

To create the four different colors of icing you’ll need a bright pink coloring gel.

Pull 1/4 of the icing out of the big bowl and place it in a smaller bowl.

Now add one drop of pink gel to the big bowl and stir well. Pull out 1/3 of the pale pink icing and place it in a small bowl.

Now add a couple more drops of pink gel to the frosting in the big bowl to make it a medium pink. Pull out half of it and place in a small bowl.

Add a couple more drops of pink gel to the big bowl until you have a bright pink. You’ll now have four separate shades: white, pale pink, medium pink, bright pink.

How to Decorate with Piping Tips

You’ll need a total of four tips. Choices should include a Wilton 1M, open star (medium or small), and petal tip. For my fourth tip I chose a flower tip. A Wilton 107 or 109 will do.

Use Your Imagination!

The goal of these cookies is to make them pretty. Use your imagination with the colors and tips. Here are some designs I came up with:

How to Make a Buttercream Rosette: Use a 1M tip and pipe the lower-case letter e.

How to Make Open Star Buttercream Rosettes: Use an open star tip and form the letter e.

How to Make Buttercream Flowers: Make “puffs” using a 107 or 109 tip.

How to Make Buttercream Ruffles: Use a petal tip and zig-zag back and forth along the edge of the cookie.

Every cookie can be different. Different number of rosettes. More ruffles. Less ruffles. More flowers. Less flowers. Just add as you see fit.

I love the look of the whole tray of cookies once the project was completed. No two cookies are alike. And that’s the goal. . .to let your imagination run wild.

Once these cookies are fully decorated you should store them in an airtight container. They will stay fresh up to a week at room temperature and up to a month in the freezer.

Variations on these Valentine Cookies

I’ve done a lot of other Valentine cookies through the years, as I mentioned above. You’ll find photos of several in my Valentine’s album. For all of those I used royal icing.

For more on that process, see my Valentine’s Sugar Cookies post.

These heart-shaped Valentine’s Cookies could easily be made with royal icing instead of buttercream. You would need to make it at a piping consistency. For more on that, see my royal icing tutorial.

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That’s it for this post, friends! You can decorate Valentine cookies like a pro, I promise! Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all!

See this recipe at

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About the Author

Janice Thompson is an author, baker, and all-around mischief maker! She has overcome a host of baking catastrophes, including a toppled wedding cake, to learn more about the baking process. Janice has published over 150 books for the Christian market but particularly enjoys writing recipes and baking devotions. To learn more about Janice or to drop her a note, visit her About the Author page.