Easy Valentine’s Day Ruffle Heart Cookies with Buttercream

You really can’t go wrong with sugar cookies on Valentine’s Day! These are fortunately one of those desserts that are easy to make for Valentine’s Day as well! More time with your friends and loved ones, either celebrating the night together quietly or hosting the best Valentine’s Day party ever.

In today’s tutorial, I will be showing you how to decorate these Valentine’s Day ruffle heart cookies. These sugar cookies are quick and easy but look fancy and adorable. They would be sure to impress arranged on a table for a party. Need some food and cocktail recipes to go along with these cookies? Check out my friend Mihaela’s blog at theworldisanoyster.com! Her Valentine’s Day – Why and How Do We Celebrate It? post has all the best party food & cocktail options.

Of course, you can also decorate these Valentine’s Day ruffle heart cookies for gifting in place of a Valentine’s Day card! Or maybe decorate these sugar cookies during the party as a fun activity! Speaking of fun activities on Valentine’s Day, check out this post for activities & crafts (plus more awesome recipes!) for Valentine’s Day this year! Sarah created this roundup post and she has a great blog as well! You can check that out at JourneyForJasmine.com.

Ready for the Valentine’s Day ruffle heart cookies tutorial now? Follow along for a beginner-friendly, step-by-step tutorial for these buttercream sugar cookies!

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Part 1: Gathering your Supplies for your Valentine’s Day Ruffle Heart Cookies

To create these cute Valentine’s Day heart buttercream sugar cookies, you will want to gather:

• • 1 Icing bag
  • Wilton tip #104
  • Heart cookie cutter – You can get the exact one that I used here: Ann Clark Heart Cookie Cutter
  • Pink (or any other Valentine’s Day color) gel food coloring
  • Ingredients for a crusting buttercream, find my crusting buttercream icing recipe here
  • Ingredients for sugar cookie dough, find my no spread sugar cookies recipe here

Part 2: Baking the Cookies and Setting up Your Icing Bags

• • 1. Roll, cut out, and bake your heart sugar cookies according to your cookie dough recipe.
    2. Make your buttercream icing and mix in your pink food gel coloring. Put in less color for a pastel pink like I did or make it bold with more color! Remember, the color will deepen as it crusts.
    3. Place your pink frosting into an icing bag with a tip #104 in the bag. If you don’t know how to do this, just hop over to my Getting Started: Learn How to Decorate Buttercream Cookies page.

Part 3: The Fun Part! Frosting Your Valentine’s Day Ruffle Heart Cookies

Check out the video tutorial below to see how these buttercream sugar cookies are truly one of those desserts that are easy to make for Valentine’s Day! Then, check out the step-by-step photo series for all of the details.

• • 1. Your first step will be to become familiar with the tip #104. If you haven’t used this tip before, there is no need to be intimidated. It’s actually a very fun and versatile tip size. Hold the icing bag with the fat side of the tip toward the edge of the cookie. As you create each ruffle, you will be drawing tiny hills or upside down “u” shapes. Practice on a piece of parchment paper or on your cookie. Just make sure to scrape off the practice ruffles on your cookie if they didn’t turn out right.  
    2. Now that you are familiar with the tip shape, outline the edge of the heart cookie by creating an outer row of ruffles.
    3. Continue to create ruffle layers as you move your way in toward the center of heart.  
    4. Lastly, create a small heart shape with the tip #104 in the center of your ruffle layers.  

Aren’t these Valentine’s Day ruffle heart cookies so adorable? Plus, they were quick and easy as promised! Truly one of those Valentine’s Day desserts that are easy to make. I think these Valentine’s Day heart cookies would be just as cute in red, purple, or white buttercream frosting. Have fun making these cookies your own and match your Valentine’s Day party theme colors.

How to Store & Transport Your Buttercream Valentine’s Day Ruffle Heart Cookies

I often get asked how to store buttercream sugar cookies or even how to package buttercream sugar cookies. These Valentine’s Day ruffle heart cookies can be tricky in the sense that the frosting goes over the edge. Not to worry, though! To move your cookies, use a wide spatula to pick them up. If you just need to move them to another part of the counter or table, use your knife or any utensil, really, to push on the side of the cookie. Don’t push on the frosting.

Allow these buttercream sugar cookies to crust overnight on the counter. In the morning, carefully touch a corner of one to see if the frosting has hardened at all. Remember, a great benefit of buttercream sugar cookies is that the frosting has a soft bite. Only the outside hardens so just be gentle.

Another question I get asked often is if buttercream sugar cookies can be decorated ahead of time. The answer is, yes, you just want to make sure you are freezing decorated sugar cookies if you make them too far in advance. I assume most of my readers are here to learn how to decorate buttercream sugar cookies for their upcoming parties. Go ahead and store these in the freezer for up to a week (you could probably get away with two weeks) in an airtight container.

I don’t like to stack the cookies in the freezer, in case the frosting sticks together. However, I’ve done it before, and, as long as you wait until the cookies come to room temp, you can unstick them. But it’s best to be safe than sorry. To store buttercream sugar cookies in the freezer, place them in multiple shallow Tupperware containers so you only have one layer of cookies. Something like this set is perfect for storing buttercream sugar cookies.

To present these Valentine’s Day ruffle heart cookies for guests, arrange on a pretty tray. You can stack them once they are crusted and at room temperature. Of course, when stacking these cookies, allow them to be stacked in a pretty way! You don’t want to fully cover any of the cookies with another cookie. You want to show these ones off!

If you are traveling with these buttercream cookies, use the air tight Tupperware containers until you get to the party destination.

Save The Tutorial for How to Decorate Buttercream Valentine’s Day Ruffle Heart Cookies

To save the tutorial for these Valentine’s Day ruffle heart cookies for later, simply click on any of the social share icons on the top or side of this page. Alternatively, hover over one of the images below to pin the image to your Pinterest page!

Happy Valentine’s Day! Make sure to check out my other Valentine’s Day Tutorials for more buttercream sugar cookies as well!

I’d love to know in the comments below what your plans are for Valentine’s Day this year! Are you spending times with a significant other? Your family? Doing a fun craft with your kids? Or are you going more along the lines of a Galentine’s party? Whatever the plans, these Valentine’s Day ruffle heart cookies should be perfect!