Valentine Ladybug Cookies

Original recipe found on Our Best Bites (I love that site!!!)

I used my mom's sugar cookie recipe. It made about 30 large heart shaped cookies.

Then I made this Glace icing. Lots of great pictures about this icing on the original site.

Glacé Icing

1lb powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 C)
6T milk or water
6T light Corn Syrup (6T is equal to 1/4 C plus another 2 T)
1 t extract (I use almond because I use almond in my sugar cookies)

With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth (no lumps!) Then stir in corn syrup and extract.

You will use this same recipe for both glazing and piping. Thickened, you can pipe outlines, and as you thin it, you can use it for “flooding” cookies.  Make sure to let them dry overnight to fully harden for stacking.

For ladybug heart cookies:

1. Mix your icing.

2. Place about 2 T-1/4 cup of white icing for the eyes into an icing bag. Set aside.

3. Remove 1/4 cup icing and add pink food coloring. Mix with 2 T. more powdered sugar so it's slightly stiffer. Place that icing in an icing bag. Use this slightlly stiffer pink icing, trace an outline of the heart on each cookie, and then trace a line across the heart about 1/3 of the way from the tip. Allow icing to firm up for 15-20 minutes. Use this time to mix other colors.

4. Mix 1/3 to 1/2 cup icing with red food coloring. Use a small spoon to carefully fill the curvy part of the heart.

5. Mix 1/3 cup icing with black food coloring. Reserve about 1 T. for the irises of the eyes. Place the majority of icing in an icing bag or use a spoon to fill in the "head" of the ladybug.

6. Take a break and let the cookies dry for about 45-60 minutes.

7. Now that the icing has hardened use the bag of black icing to dot your ladybugs however you like. Use the white bag to make two white eyes. Use a toothpick to dot black onto the white eyes.

All done! Now let them sit and dry for about 12-24 hours before stacking them.