Valentine's Day cookies

I really like conversation hearts.  Who wouldn't?  It's a whole box of compliments - UR SWEET, LUV U, FUNNY, CALL ME!  So for Valentine's Day, I knew exactly what kind of sugar cookies I wanted to make for my kiddos teachers...

I absolutely loved how these turned out!  So pretty and so yummy!  It made my heart smile!

My husband's favorite cake is cherry chocolate.  As someone who loves to bake, I find the request for this cake somewhat insulting.  Are you familiar with this cake?  It has like five ingredients and you basically dump them all in a bowl and mix.  Don't get me wrong, there's a time and place for quick and easy, but that time is definitely not Valentine's Day, anniversaries or birthdays.  So, in my efforts to create a more sophisticated cherry chocolate cake for Valentine's Day, I came up with these...

Dark chocolate cupcakes with a heart-shaped cherry center.  Now these I can really dig my spoon into with a element of baker's satisfaction!  Yum!

Okay, so did you guys watch the Oscars?  One of my besties throws an Oscar watching party every year (so much fun!) and I made these yummy "awards" for her to include in her swag bags for all her guests (I told you it was super fun - I mean, really, swag bags for all of us!  Cha-ching!)  

At any rate, this is a great example of a cookie I made without having a cookie cutter.  I made a custom template and hand-cut each cookie.  Worked out pretty good, right?  I can do it for you too!  

The only thing I'm not a huge fan of about these cookies (if my life depended on finding something negative!) would be the black icing.  With so much of it, it leaves the mouth a bit purpley-green.  Awesome for a five year old boy's birthday party, not so awesome for a group of glam ladies picking Oscar winners!

Welcome! Come on in and pick out a treat!

So this is it!  The cookies that finally tipped me over the edge!  (And honestly, I can't continue without acknowledging that it really should be "so THESE are it", but doesn't "so THIS is it" just sound so much better?  I think so!)  At any rate, these innocent looking, yummy sugar cookies were the straw that broke the camel's back, the thing that made me finally bite the bullet (yes, sweet friends, those cliches are for you - you know who you are!)  I promise I'm getting to the importance of these cookies. 

So I offered to make some sugar cookies for my hunky monkey's preschool teacher's birthday (got that?) and these are they...

Yummy, right?  And it wasn't just me who thought so!  Family, friends, neighbors, teachers - you all kept saying the same thing about these and many other things I'd baked - "These are soooo good!  You should sell them!"  I knew I loved them, but I wondered if I wasn't having an "American Idol" moment where everyone was just being nice and supportive and the second I actually tried to sell some of my desserts, some well-meaning customer (we'll call him Simon Cowell) would hit me with a huge dose of reality and I'd sulk back home without my ticket to Hollywood and likely drown my sorrows in some "what I thought to be fabulous, but Simon told me mediocre" dessert.  (Whew! I'm thinking that might be a run-on sentence?).  

So there I was at a crossroads.  What to do?  What to do?  Well, guess what? 

I DID IT!  

Yippy-ki-A!  Cakes, cupcakes and cookies now for sale!  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!  Life is short!  Always eat dessert first!