I love Valentine’s Day and all of the sweet, mushy things that go with it. The Valentine’s Day treats are one of the best things.
No matter how old my grandchildren get, I will always love to make Valentine’s Day treats for them. Sharing my decorated sugar cookies and sweet treat bags today.
I remember how special it was to do the Valentines that we gave to each other in grade school, spending hours picking out the perfect one from the box for each classmate. I know that my little grandchildren still do the same thing now. It is just funny to me to read some of the phrases on the conversation hearts!
I like to bake a variety of cookies and make them trays, mailing them to the little ones that live in other states. It is so special when I get a picture from their mommy’s with the open box and they have a cookie in each hand.
Here are some of the Valentine’s Day treats I make for my family.
They love the Decorated Sugar Cookies I make.
I have been using this recipe for about 40 years and I am always pleased with it. Recipe card below.
I also like to do the candy treat bags.
Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter softened (Land O Lakes Unsalted Butter)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour for dusting
- 2 lb bag confectioner sugar
- 1/3 cup solid shortening Crisco
- water
- food coloring paste
- sprinkles/other decorative candies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. ( I use baking stones)
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In another large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on a medium speed ,beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and combine well. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, beating only enough to combine. Shape dough into a ball, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Place the remaining flour into a small bowl. Sprinkle some of the flour onto a flat work surface. Scoop out about 3 tablespoons of the dough and place on surface. Dip cookie cutters and small rolling pin into the bowl of flour. Roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out the cookies and place on baking sheets. Continue to cut out all of the cookies, re-rolling the pieces of dough.
- Bake about 10 minutes or until cookies are light golden brown around the edges. Remove baking sheets from oven and allow to set 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire cooling rack.
- To make the frosting, place the confectioner sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the shortening and 1/4 cup water. Slowly beat together on the lowest speed of mixer. Add additional water a tablespoon or 2 at a time and increase speed on the mixer. Beat until smooth.
- Divide icing into separate small bowls. Using a toothpick or end of a plastic butter knife, add the coloring paste to each bowl. If icing is too thick, add drops of water and stir to desired consistency; if too thin, add small amounts of confectioner sugar. Decorate cookies as desired.
- Place some of the icing in pastry bags also to decorate cookies.
- Makes about 4 dozen.
Notes
The items you will need are plastic stem glasses, large clear treat bags, cupcakes, candies, and ribbon.
Bake the number of cupcakes you will need and frost them with your favorite icing recipe. The grandkids love to do this. They do not need to be decorated fancy. A good tip is to bake the cupcakes 2 days ahead of time. Place on a wire cooling rack and after they cool, cover the tops. I leave the bottoms exposed to dry longer. The first time I made these, the bottoms were so moist that when I put them on the candy, it became gummy.
I buy these glasses at the Dollar store. You get 6 in a package for $1.00. Always buy extra because they can crack easy.
Fill the glasses about 2/3 full with a variety of small candies.
Place a cupcake on top of candy in each glass.
Place each glass in a treat bag, then throw in a couple of handfuls of candy, and tie the ribbon in a bow.
The children in your life will love these little bags. These are also cute treats for friends, neighbors and co-workers.
I was lucky enough to have one of my grand daughters to help me a few hours last week-end. She carefully arranged each cookie on a tray, while telling me who would like to eat that one. She made sure that each person was going to get their favorite color cupcake too.
I love to have the children in the kitchen with me making treats and making memories.
Some additional ideas to celebrate with your children are HERE.
This post was shared on Sweet Little Bluebird Weekend Potluck.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Your cookies look amazing! I love the little hearts with messages and the cupcake/lolly bag is such a sweet idea. I really enjoy making things in the kitchen with the grandkids too, even when it means my floor is probably going to be covered in sprinkles. 🙂
Thank you…my floor is such a mess afterwards. It seems like the sprinkles hang around for many vacuums. Kinda like the pine needles after we take down the Christmas tree.
I’m so impressed with your cookies! Mine never seem to look nearly so well. It is so much fun to bake with our grandkids, isn’t it!
Thank you but mine are really not fancy. I don’t take time to smooth the icing etc on them, I just spread it and try to do some decorating. The grandkids do like baking with us and they think everything is beautiful so we are good!!!
That is a good tip with the cupcakes that I had not heard before. The treat bags are very cute.
I don’t make home made treats but I do purchase the heart shaped boxes of chocolates, with silly saying, for my boys (and now my daughter in law) and have since they were little. Its tradition…what can I say?
It’s a wonderful tradition!! The kids love anything we do for them and that is what is so much fun. I have to mail the cookies to 2 sets of my grandkids. My daughter told me last night that the 3 year old ate one of the cookies and said “the mail lady did good!!” We were cracking up.
Anyone would love your beautiful cookies! And your helper is so cute. I love the way children have to determine exactly which one is perfect for each person! Hope all of you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!
Thank you..you are always so kind. Happy Valentine’s Day to your family too.
How long does it take to make all of those cookies? I like the cup with cupcake on candy. My oldest grand daughter would absolutely love this!
Thank you for visiting my blog. I made the choc chip, snickerdoodle, M & M, and Mexican wedding cookies on one day and put them in the freezer. I baked 4 recipes of the sugar cookies on another day and then decorated them the next day. It takes me too long anymore to get everything done on the same day (AGE..haha) I make those little candy bags for a lot of occasions and everyone loves them. Halloween, Christmas, Birthday parties etc. Just find candy for the holiday and co-ordinate the color of icing on the cupcakes. Once I made those for a co-workers retirement party and even the adults liked them. Let me know if you do them sometime! Have a good week
What lovely cookies and cupcakes you’ve baked up! Nice work! Thanks for linking up at #WelcomeHomeWednesday. We hope to see you this Wednesday http://www.suburbansimplicity.com.
Thank you. I love to find new blogs to read, everyone has so much to share and I really enjoy them.