Red Velvet Cookie Sandwiches

These red velvet cookie sandwiches are soft and chewy and filled with everyone’s favourite cream cheese frosting! These heart shaped cookies are perfect to share - anytime!

I am so excited to share this recipe with you. When I started planning what I wanted to make for Valentine’s Day this year cookie sandwiches immediately came to mind. I knew I wanted my cookies to be heart shaped, so I needed a dough that would hold its shape and since everyone loves cream cheese frosting I knew it would be the perfect filling.

Red Velvet Cake has that hint of cocoa flavour and is incredibly moist. I wanted to make sure that my cookies shared the same characteristics while still holding their shape. The cookies have a true red velvet flavour. They have just enough cocoa powder and the addition of sour cream really helps to bring home that red velvet flavour and texture.

There are a few key things that you can do to keep the cookies from spreading while baking. It all comes down to properly chilling your cookies. Chilling them before you roll them out and before they go into the oven really helps them keep their shape.

The cookies are delicious straight from the oven but they taste even better the next day in my opinion. The cream cheese frosting keeps the cookies nice and soft, and that extra day gives all the flavours a chance to meld together.

Red Velvet Cookie Sandwiches

Makes: 2-3 dozen individual cookies or 1-1.5 dozen sandwich cookies

Ingredients

For the Cookies

1 c butter

1 c sugar

1 tsp vinegar

1 egg

Red Gel Food Colouring

2 c flour

¼ c cocoa powder

½ tsp baking soda

2 tbsp sour cream

For the Frosting

8oz cream cheese, at room temperature

½ c butter, at room temperature

3 c icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-3 tbsp heavy cream (optional)

Directions

For the Cookies: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, on medium speed, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, vinegar and food colouring  to butter mixture. Mix until combined. Sift together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. On slow speed, add in flour mixture. Finally, mix in sour cream. Mix until just combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for minimum 1 hour

Preheat oven to 350F. On a lightly floured surface roll out dough to desired thickness. Cut out cookies using desired cookie cutters and transfer to parchment lined baking tray. Chill cut cookies in fridge for 15 minutes before baking. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until cookie edges are light golden brown.  Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

For the Frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer, over medium to high speed, beat together butter and cream cheese until light and creamy. On low speed, mix in icing sugar, one cup at a time, until incorporated. Mix in vanilla. Whip on medium to high speed for 1-2minutes or until light and fluffy. Add heavy cream until desired frosting consistency is reached.

To assemble: Pair up similar sized cookies. Pipe frosting onto cookies and sandwich together. Store cookies in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Sugar Cookie Decorating Kit

This sugar cookie decorating kit is the perfect gift for anyone on your list. Give the gift of cozy Christmas cheer!

Um how is Christmas already just a week away!! Time is flying! I thought I would share a fun, last minute gift today. If you area already making cookies why not package a few undecorated ones up to share. I love the idea of a sugar cookie decorating kit. Its such a fun way to gift cookies to friends and family. Let them have the fun of decorating the cookies any way they please! This would be a great afternoon activity for kids or its a fun activity to do while watching your favourite Christmas movie. Its perfect to get into the festive spirit.

To Make the Kit

I used a wire basket lined with a Christmas tea towel as the base of my kit. In the kit, for the cookie decorating I included: some fresh baked cookies, royal icing in a squeeze bottle, and some fun festive sprinkles. Of course I had to include some fun extras too. Homemade hot chocolate mix (recipe below), a holiday mug and a cute spoon round out my cookie decorating kit. I cellophane the entire kit and added a cookie cutter - just incase they want to make more cookies themselves! You could also include some homemade marshmallows, a fun ornament, pipping bags and tips, a fun spatula… the possibilities are endless!

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

Ingredients

1 c cocoa powder

1 c powdered sugar

1/2 c mini chocolate chips

Directions

In a medium bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, powdered sugar and mini chocolate chips. Use a funnel to transfer mix into a small mason jar.

For One Hot Chocolate: Heat one cup of milk with 1 tbsp of pre-made hot chocolate mix. Stir until all of the mix has dissolved.

Sugar Cookie Decorating Kit with Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

Tulip Sugar Cookie Bouquet Tutorial

A quick and simple sugar cookie decorating tutorial to learn how to make a water colour tulip sugar cookie bouquet.

This is a fun and simple spring sugar cookie tutorial. It would make the perfect Mother's Day gift! It would also be appropriate for spring birthdays, Easter or a fun house warming present! Or you know just because! I love that the presentation makes it look like a luxurious bouquet of tulips. I like that with this method you do not have to add sticks to your cookies, which saves time. I decided to use the water colour technique to paint my cookies rather than tint the icing and flood the cookies one solid colour.  I think that by using the gel food colouring like paint it adds dimension to the cookies and gives them a more realistic look. This decorating technique is quick, simple and perfect for beginners. 

Tips for making a Tulip Sugar Cookie Bouquet 

• Make sure your royal icing is a good flooding consistency. You will want it to be thin enough to flood your cookies, but not too thin that it runs everywhere! I like to use a 10 second icing for these cookies. That means that when I run an knife through my bowl royal icing it takes around 10 seconds for the line to disappear. The faster the line disappears the thinner the icing.

• Flood your tulip cookies in three parts, allowing the icing to dry or set up for 15-20 minutes in between each part. This will give the cookie dimension. First flood the left petal, allowing the icing to dry slightly before flooding the right. Finally flood the middle petal and the stem.

• Make sure your cookie are completely dry before painting them with the gel colours. I like to allow my cookies to dry over night. Even if the cookies look dry and are dry to the touch, the added moisture from the water/alcohol can cause cracks or dents in your cookie.

• When painting sugar cookies I use Wilton brand gel colours, a variety of small clean food only paint brushes that I purchased from my local craft store and either water or some form of clear alcohol (such as white rum or vodka).

• Royal icing can only take so much moisture before it starts to crumble and create holes or bubbles within the frosting. This makes it difficult to layer your colour or build up a design on the cookie. I find that using a clear alcohol typically produces better results then using water as it evaporates faster from the cookie.

• Use paper towel or an extra flooded cookie to test out your colour blends before painting your actual cookies

• For more tips on decorating with Royal Icing - check out this post.

 

Tulip Sugar Cookie Bouquet Tutorial

You'll Need 

2-3 dozen sugar cookies in tulip and leaf shapes 

1 recipe of royal icing

12 inch pipping bag 

coupler 

Small Round Pipping Tip (like Wilton 3)

Paint pallet (or plate)

Gel Colours ( I used Wilton Pink, Christmas Red, Peach, Leaf Green, Yellow and Orange)

water or clear alcohol 

paint brush (only used for food) 

Brown Kraft Paper or Burlap 

Ribbon 

Directions

With your royal icing at a flood consistency (around 10 second icing), flood your tulip cookies in three parts, allowing the icing to dry or set up for 15-20 minutes in between each part. This will give the cookie dimension.  First flood the left petal, allowing the icing to dry slightly before flooding the right. Finally flood the middle petal and the stem. Outline and flood the leaves.

Allow the cookies to dry completely before moving onto the next step. 

Add your gel colours to your pallet. Using your paint brush and the water or alcohol, thin and blend your gel colours as you would water colour paints, until you reach your desired shades. 

Paint your tulip and leaf cookies as desired. Allow the paint to dry completely before packaging cookies into bouquets.