This is the perfect recipe for cut-out sugar cookies. These adorable mini heart-shaped sugar cookies are easy to make, super buttery, and keep their shape after baking.
Also, an easy recipe for royal icing to frost these delicious hearts! Check out all of our favorite cookie recipes too.
Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies
These mini heart-shaped sugar cookies are the most adorable treat for Valentine’s Day or any other day you want to nibble on some sweet treats.
Full disclosure, my kids ate most of them and couldn’t stop on the day we baked them. They’re bite-size, so once you eat one, you’ll want another and another!
This sugar cookie recipe is my favorite cut-out sugar cookie recipe since the cookies are buttery, with the perfect snap, when you bite into them. They’re topped with a simple sugar cookie royal icing recipe that blends easily when frosted on top.
How to Make Sugar Cookies
To make these cute little heart-shaped sugar cookies, you’ll need a 1″ heart-shaped cookie cutter, piping bag, food dye in the color you want to use, rolling pin, cookie sheets, parchment paper, and all of the ingredients in the recipe below.
Follow the recipe, then roll the dough into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll and cut out the shapes to place on a cookie sheet.
Tips for Making the Best Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookie dough works better when it’s cold, but not so cold that it’s impossible to roll out.
Right after the dough is made, roll it into a ball and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. Then, roll the dough out. The shapes will come out cleaner and easier to lift up to put on the cookie sheet.
The cookies bake quickly, so keep an eye on them! They really only need about 7 minutes until they’re golden brown. Of course, everyone’s oven bakes differently, so watch them closely.
How to Make Sugar Cookie Icing
The recipe we use for the sugar cookie icing only has three ingredients… so easy! The hard part is getting to know the right consistency of the frosting.
The frosting has to be thick enough to stay on the cookie, but light enough to mold into the shape and become smooth. Usually, the ratio in the recipe below works well, but add a little more water if it’s too thick. A little water goes a long way!
Frosting sugar cookies can be intimidating, but if you have just a few tools, it’s easy to do! You’ll need a piping bag, a small round tip (Wilton 1 or 2), meringue powder, which is an egg white substitute, and then some gel food colorings.
If you want to use natural dye that will totally work as well! These items will help you frost perfect little heart-shaped cookies!
Quick Tip for Filling an Icing Bag
A quick tip for putting frosting in the piping bag – get a large glass, add the bag inside, and fold the edges of the bag around the glass.
Then spoon in the frosting. It’s mess-free! My sweet friend Mara taught me that one!
Another quick tip when rolling out sugar cookie dough is to use powdered sugar on the surface and the rolling pin, not flour.
The flour will make the cookies tougher, but the sugar just makes them a little sweeter! It really helps a lot not adding more flour to the dough and the powdered sugar keeps the stickiness down.
And I just had to make a Sugar and Charm blue heart! I love that color so much.
You can wrap the cookies in a little bag with ribbon and they really make the sweetest treat!
More Cookie Recipes You’ll Love!
- Butter-less Chocolate Chip Cookies – Our most popular cookie!
- Bunny Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Tail – These are too adorable!
- Italian Rainbow Cookies – Can take some time, but they are SO good!
- Gingerbread Spice Cookies – Pretty for the holidays.
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Mini Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened , 3 sticks
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 1 sprinkling powdered sugar for rolling
Royal Sugar Cookie Icing
- 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons meringue powder
- 9 tablespoons warm water , more or less depending on consistency
Instructions
Directions for Sugar Cookie Dough
- In a mixing bowl with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter and sugar together until light in color.
- Add in the egg, vanilla and milk and continue to beat.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
- Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture with the mixer on low speed.
- Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix until combined, but don’t over mix. Just until the ingredients are together.
- Roll the dough in a ball and refrigerate for 20 minutes so it firms up a little and is easier to cut the shapes from.
- Prepare two (or three) cookie sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Remove dough from the fridge and make a space on the counter to roll it out. Use powdered sugar rather than flour when rolling the cookies so they don’t stick to the surface. You can use the sugar on the top and bottom of the dough and the rolling pin. Roll to about 1/4 to 1/2″ thick.
- Cut out little heart shapes with a tiny 1″ heart cookie cutter. This recipe make a lot of hearts, so you’ll need to bake a few batches! Place them on the cookie sheet, about 1/2″ apart.
- Bake in the oven for 7 minutes or until cookies are just about to turn golden brown.
- Remove and let them cool before you frost!
Directions for Royal Sugar Cookie Icing
- Using an electric mixer, place the powdered sugar and meringue powder in the bowl.
- Add one tablespoon warm water at a time, whisking until the consistency is smooth.
- The goal of this frosting is to to get a consistency that won’t spread when creating an outline, but blends perfectly for filling in the center of the cookie… sounds easy right? If it’s too thick add a little more water (like 1 teaspoon at a time) and if it’s too thin add more powdered sugar.
- Divide the frosting into separate bowls and dye as you please. The frosting dried quickly, so do not leave it out un covered. Place it in the piping bag as soon as you achieve the desired color.
Hi I’m going to make these soon and just wondering how should I store them if I make it a day before an event ?
Hi! I wanted to make these and add them to some care packages for my friends, I was wondering what I could substitute for meringue powder here in Australia? According to google pavlova magic is the best one but I was wondering if you’ve ever tried it or any other substitutes? Also, do you have a recommended guide for converting American measurements to Australian? Thank you!
Hi there! I’d like to make these for Valentine’s Day.
Could you include how much of each food coloring dye you used (in drops)?
Hi Emily, I would start with a few drops and then continue adding a drop as you go until you get your desired color. It really depends on the brand and the type of gel you’re using so just go by the look of the frosting as your best bet for matching it. Have fun making these! They’re so good!
Made these cookies and they went down a treat! I had really tiny cookie cutters so there ended up being hundreds of them lol! I also skipped the icing part because I’m lazy, but they were still so delicious!
I’m going to make them again, the same tiny size without icing but, if I added food colouring to the dough, would this affect them in any way?
Thank you Amber! I’m so glad yu liked them! I think you can add a few drops of food coloring and it won’t affect the dough much. I wouldn’t add a lot or it will change the texture and the cookie after it’s baked. Let me know how they turn out!
So incredibly yummy! Finding a good sugar cookie recipe is difficult but this one is so good!
Yay! Thanks Shelly!! Hehe 🙂
I recently made these for my daughter and her friend’s at college. They were a huge hit!!! Easy recipe and my first time with meringue icing. Your instructions were great! I did notice in the ingredients it says 1 1/2 cups of butter but listed next to that is 2 1/2 sticks. I used 3 sticks to equal 1 1/2 cups and the cookies turned out fine!
The tip of using powdered sugar to roll out and cut the cookies was excellent! Thanks for a great recipe for making special treats!
Oh thank you for letting us know! We updated it and you were right to put 3 stick in! So happy you liked them!