Cinnamon Heart Cookies and a Valentine's Day Story

Valentine's day is a coming....do you do anything special? I try not to get overly cynical during these 'Hallmark Holiday' but it is sooooo very difficult for me. Perhaps I am just cynical by nature, who knows?

Hubby and I used to go out for dinner and do all the cute couple type things on Valentine's day, really. We did. Then one Valentine's day about 13 years ago, we discovered on accident that Hubby had magically developed a rather severe allergy to fish and seafood....I mean driving high speeds in snow and ice to the emergency department type of stuff....I did actually blow a couple of red lights (the streets were bare, with no one else on them at the time).

I think one of the other scary things about that night so many years ago was that the med student treating Hubby turned out to be someone I went to high school with. I was in complete disbelief that this person even made it into med school, let alone was treating my dear sweet Hubby!! He even managed to give me super wrong instructions for how to use the epi pen they were prescribing for Hubby to carry!!!! Yikes!!!!

Anaphyalaxis can be a serious, life threatening allergy emergency. The biggest life saver is recognizing the signs and symptoms such as swelling of the face, neck, tongue, trouble breathing, hives, vomiting, cramping, diarrhea, coma, and death. Seems drastic, I know but the second you think any of these are happening, call and ambulance at once! We were already in the car so I drove Hubby myself. We got to emergency that night and I told the triage nurse he was in the midst of anaphylaxis, they took him one way to treat immediately and sat me down to fill out the forms!! Read more about Anaphalaxis here.
That really was a lot of excitement wrapped up into one Valentine's day for us. We now stay in and do our own cooking...as romantic as it gets when there is a 15 year old in the house!!

I did manage to bake up some heart shaped sugar cookies with a cinnamon royal icing...the students (and fellow staff) at work seemed to really enjoy them...I also truly enjoy the cheers of the students when they realize that Mrs. Morton has baked for them....music to my ears really!

The cookie dough is my favourite all time, stand by sugar cookie recipe...I use it for all things sugar cookies. You can add all sorts of things to it such as flavourings and colourings to suit your holiday or event needs. Many times, like with these cookies, I tend to flavour up the icing. At Christmas, I like to use peppermint in the icing and for Valentine's Day, I tried out this cute little bottle of cinnamon oil....great results I must say!
This is also my recipe for making the Star Wars cookies we all love so much!! (You can find the picture of these at the bottom of the page!



Sugar Cookies for all occasions
Printable sugar cookie recipe

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

In a bowl, combine and set aside:

• 2/14 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

In the bowl of your stand mixer, or in a bowl with a hand held mixer, or an old fashioned bowl with a wooden spoon, cream together until light and fluffy:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar

Add to this, and continue to beat:

• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla (or flavouring of your choice)

Add the flour mixture and continue to mix until the flour is well incorporated.

Form the dough into 2 discs, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for about an hour. Chilling the dough makes is so much easier to roll out and keeps the cookies from spreading while baking.

Preheat the oven to 350F

Lightly dust the counter top with some flour and roll out a disc of dough to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness.
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Using the cookie cutter of your choice, cut out the shapes of your choice.

Transfer the shapes to a silpat or parchment paper lined baking tray.


Bake at 350 F for 10 to 12 minutes or until slightly golden at the edges.


Allow the cookies to cool for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Once the cookies are cool, decorate!!


I used the royal icing recipe from the can of Wilton powdered egg whites!



Beat together:

• 3tbsp powdered egg whites
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 6 tbsp warm water (adjust amount for desired thickness/thinness)

Since I wanted a thin icing, I add more than 6 tbsp of water.

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I also add 1/16 of a tsp of this cinnamon oil to the icing. It is really powerful. It even has a warning on the back about not getting any in your nose or your eyes...also a warning about steam...very potent!! It is the kind used in candy making. (Although I do think that next time, I will add 1/8 tsp next time as there was a faint taste of cinnamon, I wanted a little bit stronger of a cinnamon flavour in the icing)

Also add any colourings to the icing at this point as well.

For these cookies, I want a thin icing as I am dipping the cookies into the icing, then letting the excess drip off with a little help from a spatula and letting them dry.

Dip, dip, sha na na na, sha na na na na!

Allow the cookies to dry for a couple of hours, or over night.

To see some other amazing treats, go see Lisa at Sweet as Sugar Cookies....check out her linky party!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!