14 Days of Valentines: Day 14 Homemade Valentine Cookies

It's day 14 of 14 Days of Valentines!  I made it!!

It's not a Valentine's Day without sugar cookies.  I have a tradition and it stems from years of attending school in the LSD (not THAT LSD.)  We did our Valentine's Day right.  With Cookies!  And not just your normal cookies, special request cookies that had your very own name or message on them.  Your parents or special admirers would pre-order them and on V-Day you'd be surprised with your very own delicious cookie.  Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Then, in college my friend and I would spend the weekend before finals at her Grandma's friend's house where we'd study until our eyes bled and ate until our bellies burst.  Among plates of mashed potatoes and gravy, we'd also munch down some deliciously fattening sugar cookies.

So, to pay tribute to the two makers of the best sugar cookies in all the land (it's a tie), I busted out some of my own.  (Thanks RaeAnn and Beverly!)  I used Beverly's sugar cookie recipe and let me warn you, these are not for the faint of heart.  They are laden with fat & sugar, 2 cups of fat (butter & oil) and 2 cups of sugar (white & powdered), but they are OH SO GOOD!  Well, worth the slight increase in pounds on the scale.

I had ambitions to decorate like these adorable "Owl Always Love You" cookies from Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle or my own original creation of heart shaped cookies into monsters.  And then I remembered it was Monday and all ambitions went out the door.  Traditional heart shaped cookies with colored cream cheese frosting, it is!  Nothing like a 1000 calorie cookie, right?!

The World's Best Sugar Cookies:

1 C. Powdered sugar
1 C. Granulated sugar
1 C. Butter 
1 C. Vegetable oil
2 Eggs
1 t. Vanilla 
4 1/2 C. Flour
1 t. Salt
1 t. Soda
1 t. Cream of Tartar  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together the sugars & butter, then add oil.  Mix until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, soda and cream of tartar.  Slowly pour dry mixture into wet.  Refrigerate cookies for 1 hour.  Roll out on floured surface and cut using festive cookie cutters.  Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are light brown.   


Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz Cream Cheese
1/2 C Butter
1 t. Vanilla
3 C. Powdered sugar
Food coloring of choice

Directions:  Mix first four ingredients together.  Mix food coloring into frosting.  For multiple colors, divide frosting into individual bowls and mix in food coloring of choice.

Like that last one?  That's the husband's special cookie made by his little man.

And that's it.  14 Days of Valentine's creations.  Happy Valentine's Day!