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Kids love cookies and they love to learn how to bake them. It’s probably the easiest way to teach your children how to cook. Making cookies for Valentine’s Day is a lot of fun, easy to do and think of the smiles on your children’s faces when they get to hand them out to their friends and family.

What You’ll Need

* Basic sugar cookie recipe or a box mix
* White icing recipe or store bought
* Wax paper
* Red food coloring
* Valentine’s Day cookie cutters
* Red and pink decorating gel
* Red, pink and white sprinkles
* Candy conversation hearts

Directions

Start by making the sugar cookies as directed in your favorite recipe or by the directions on the box. Once the cookies are baked and have cooled slightly, remove them from the cookie sheet and place them on wax paper to finish cooling and decorate. Be sure the cookies are completely cooled before icing.

If you are making your icing from scratch have it made and ready to go by the time the cookies cool. If you’re using store bought icing, be sure to place it in the refrigerator for a short time so when you add the food coloring it won’t be too runny to place on the cookies. Separate your icing into 3 bowls. One should remain white. Place a few drops of red food coloring into one bowl and stir to make the frosting pink and more drops of red food coloring in the last bowl for red icing.

Now have the children ice the cookies by using a table knife or rubber spatula. Show them how to make it come to the edges of the cookie and how to smooth it out over the cookie.

Once the cookies are iced they can use the decorating gel to create sayings on some of the cookies. Using the sprinkles or placing a conversation heart in the middle of the cookie can decorate the other cookies. Make them festive and your children will enjoy giving these cookies to everyone they know. Just be careful they don’t eat them all before hand.