Ruffled Heart Sugar Cookies

Whether you like to celebrate Valentine's Day, Galentine's Day or both, heart cookies are always a fun treat to make. These Ruffled Heart Sugar Cookies have that classic heart shape, but have an added sense of flair with a ruffled, ribbon-like border.

We're going to use my Cut Out Sugar Cookies recipe for these cookies and frost them with a delicious vanilla buttercream. They're then covered in your favorite sugar sprinkles and a beautiful ruffled border is piped to make them look extra fancy.

I recommend using sugar sprinkles for these cookies because they will give you the cleanest look. You can also use jimmies if you like, but they will leave some gaps and show more of the buttercream underneath.

The piping tips you'll need will depend on the size of your cookie cutters and how large of a ribbon border you want each cookie to have. Any of Wilton's or Ateco's leaf tips, #65-70 or #112 will create that ribbon-like border. #113-#115 created a really large border and would require a much bigger cookie.

A FEW NOTES BEFORE WE GET STARTED

• Room Temperature Ingredients:
  • Butter: It’s important that your butter is softened. In a pinch, you can put your butter in the microwave for about 5 seconds on each side, but watch closely to make sure it is just softening and not melting.
  • Egg: You want to make sure that your egg is at room temperature to ensure that it is properly incorporated into your batter. If you forget to leave it out before you start baking, place it in a bowl of warm water for about 15 minutes until it becomes room temperature.
• Measuring Your Ingredients: I strongl:y encourage that you use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients and ensure that you have the most accurate measurements possible.
  • However, if you don’t have a scale on hand and will be using cup measurements, make sure to use the “spoon and sweep” method when measuring to avoid packing in too much of any dry ingredient.
• Oven Temperature: Make sure to preheat your oven for at least 15 minutes before you start baking.
  • I recommend purchasing an oven thermometer to get to know your oven so you can adjust your baking temperatures accordingly. Some ovens run slightly warmer or colder so its important to know yours to make sure your baked goods come out right.

Preheat oven to 350º F. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, blend together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add in the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. With the mixer on low, sift in the flour, cornstarch, and salt and mix just until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Flatten the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes.

Place a piece of parchment or a dough mat down and lightly flour it. Place the chilled dough on top, sprinkle some flour over it and roll it out until it is about ¼" thick. Sprinkle a little more flour where needed as you roll it out, making sure it isn't sticking to the parchment or mat that's under it.

Once the dough is rolled out, slide a cookie sheet under the mat or parchment and place it in the freezer for a few minutes or the fridge for 10 minutes. This will help firm up the dough again before you cut out any shapes.

Use heart cookie cutters of various sizes to cut out cookies and gently transfer them to a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 6-12 minutes depending on the cookie size. Really small cookies will need closer to 6 min while larger cookies will need closer to 12. Let cookies cool for 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Cream the butter until smooth. With the mixer on low, slowly add in the confectioners sugar by the spoonful followed by the vanilla and cream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix just until combined.

Divide the buttercream in half and place in two separate bowls. Wrap one bowl in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to chill.

Use an offset spatula to frost the tops of each cookie. You just need a thin layer to ensure that the sugar has something to stick to. Don't worry too much about this looking too neat because it won't show once it is topped with sprinkles.

Gently pour sugar sprinkles on a small plate and carefully dip each cookie in them, frosting side down. Shake the plate as needed to redistribute the sprinkles until the frosting is completely covered. Repeat this process with the rest of your cookies, switching out sprinkle colors if desired.

Place cookies on a cookie sheet and put in the fridge to chill. Let the chilled frosting come closer to room temperature and then scoop it into a pastry bag fitted with any of Wilton's or Ateco's leaf tips, #65-70 for smaller cookies or #112 for larger.

I recommend first piping a small amount of frosting on some parchment to practice. You'll need to gently apply pressure to the bag, moving the bag up and down slightly as you go to create ripples in the frosting, similar to a ruffled ribbon.

Once you're ready to start piping on the cookies, hold the piping bag so that the outside of the tip aligns with the edge of the cookie and does not hang over past the edge of the cookie. It's important that it does not hang over the edge of the cookie or it will become too heavy and fall off as you go. You'll also want to make sure to stay on top of the cookie and not pick up any of the sprinkles with your piping tip as you go.

You'll start at the top right side of the heart, carefully turning the cookie as you go until you reach the bottom right side of the point. Next, you'll start piping back up the left side of the cookie, turning the cookie again as you go until you reach the top again.

Make sure to release the pressure you're applying to the bag at the right moment so the frosting meets up with where you started. If there are any mistakes, you can always use a toothpick to lift some of the frosting off and redo any section that you need to.

Once you add the ruffled edges, place the cookie back on the cookie sheet in the fridge so it has a chance to firm up slightly. Enjoy!

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