I adore Valentine’s Day. The colors, the excessive hearts, the candy. It’s all glorious. But I don’t just view this as a holiday for couples, I see it as a day to celebrate all of the people you love in your life (I know, I know- it sounds sickeningly cloying, but it’s really how I feel). I decided to celebrate by baking these cookies while listening to my eclectic Pandora radio stations. It was a good Saturday, folks.

I first eyed this marbling method with royal icing last year, and I’ve been waiting to try it ever since. I’ve had some practice with decorating sugar cookies (with my favorite sugar cookie and royal icing recipe), but I still have a lot to learn. What I have picked up so far is that it’s most important to plan ahead.  Most sugar cookie doughs require at least some chilling time and the royal icing is stable enough to be made a few days in advance. It’s also helpful to have all of the tools you need ready to go to make the process as efficient as possible.

Here’s what I like to use:

• Disposable piping bags
• Round piping tips
• Good quality food coloring (I use Wilton or Americolor)
• Plastic squeeze bottles (for flooding icing)
• Toothpicks
• Plastic containers with lids (for icing storage)
• Baking racks

And here is how I decorated the cookies:

1. Outline the cookies

2. Thin the icing with water and flood

3. Pipe dots

4. Drag a toothpick through the dots

5. Allow cookies to dry completely and enjoy

Source: Decorating method vis Annie’s Eats