Valentine's Day Cookies

So.... as we all know I am a fairly new baker/decorator.  That being said, some things happen through trial and error and you learn from your mistakes.  It's like riding a bike, you fall off but you stand up, brush off, and hop back on...(and hope you didn't cut it too close to the time your order needs to be completed!)


With that being said, I attempted to get ahead of myself and bake and ice Valentine's cookies ahead of time for my son and step-daughter's Valentine's Day party at school and daycare.  Cookies were baked, beautifully barely browned on the bottom, and cooled, waiting for a nice solid coat of royal icing.  Double batch of icing was made, 7 colors were mixed, bagged, and ready to pipe!  I  spent the rest of the evening icing cookies.  Even staying up a bit late.  I woke up the next morning and.... the icing looks fantastic!  I gave it the one finger touch test and... MY FINGER STICKS TO THE COOKIE!  Are you serious!?  I worked so hard, and stayed up soooo late!!  I can't believe not only do I have to ice cookies again, but I have to bake them!!!  BIG BUMMER!!!


So after wondering what in the world could have happened, I came to the conclusion that maybe by hand washing my beater and mixing bowl, there may have been an oily residue in the bowl causing the royal icing to not harden!!!  I was chatting with my good friend over at Kooking in Kate's Kitchen, and she recommended wiping my bowls out with white vinegar before making royal icing to ensure there is no oily residue.  Who knew!?!

Thanks to Kate's great advice, I was able to finally complete my cookies , just in the nick of time!!  I think these are my favorite cookies to date!