Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies | Heart Cookies for Emma's Baptism

my cookie decorating helper... snoozing on the job

Emma's Baptism Cookies

Emma is making her first trip back to Kansas City next week... on the outside, anyway. While we are there she is going to be baptized at my family's Church in Lexington. She'll be wearing the same Christening gown that my Dad, my sister and I wore - in the same Church at which we were baptized. It is a beautifully simple gown that was handmade... by someone. I'll have to find out who - I'm sure my Grandma will be able to fill me in.

After the service, we will be hosting a brunch for our family. I'm thrilled to actually get to plan a party! Since we've moved to Boston I've done a lot of writing about planning parties, but I haven't gotten to plan nearly as many as I did when I was an event planner and caterer in Kansas City. While I don't miss loading and unloading platters, flowers and linens from my car, I do miss the excitement of envisioning then executing an event. Anytime I start to plan a party my head starts spinning with florals, whimsical desserts, linens, color schemes... really fun for someone like me. There is nothing that quite gets me going like planning a party.

For Emma's Baptism Brunch, I'll have limited time and resources as it will be held in the church... and I will be jumping from Moo-Moo's to Mi-Mi's (the grandmas...) so, I've prepared some sugar cookies ahead of time. I decided that a heart theme would be appropriate since it is so close to Valentines Day. Still in the 'hand-stitched' mode from the Holidays, I made the cookies to look like an embroidery sampler with an eclectic mix of shapes and patterns. I modeled the different patterns off of the various dresses and outfits of hers that I love.

Here's a link to my Sugar Cookie (and more Valentine's Day Cookies...) recipe!

My decorating area... when I decorate sugar cookies it takes over my entire kitchen. It is quite the project.

I just made 'dots' to form the clusters of roses, then used a pastry bag snipped at an angle to create the leaves. I think this is a cleaner, more modern way of creating that classic rosebud icing decoration that we're used to seeing on cakes.

I packed up the cookies in ziplock bags for the freezer to keep them fresh. I'm going to check them in my suitcase at the airport... fingers crossed that most of them will arrive in one piece!

Here's a link to my Sugar Cookie (and more Valentine's Day Cookies...) recipe!