In my searching for crafty food for my other blog, I find so much cool, cute and clever treats and dishes that cool and clever people like you make, I feel compelled to share them here. How other bloggers’ brains work and what they create with food continually amaze me.  Here are a few links to some Valentine’s Day inspirational food. (Shown above are my tiny little bite-size x and o cookies.)

A bouquet of roses my husband would deem worth the expense: Bacon roses by Not Quite Nigella.

AirHeads turned candy bracelet from Designed Improvised. This looks nicer than a most of my real jewelry.

Anyone who can get gradations of color in a homemade marshmallow is OK in my book. Pink ombre marshmallows from Haniela’s.

Gorgeous fluttering butterflies cookies, from Twigg Studios.

Baw, whaka whaka, baw. (That doesn’t look at all like the sounds I’m making in my head.) Chippendale cookies from Sweet Sugarbelle.

I”m pretty much dumbfounded by all she creates, this is just one thing. And there’s a video how-to. Gorgeous painted roses on cookies by Arty McGoo.

Making me want to revisit macaron making, especially as there is Nutella involved, macarons from Bake at 350.

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Homemade sprinkles are certainly not an innovation of this blog. I’ve seen tons all over the web. If memory serves correctly (and I’m lucky my memory is recorded over at my other gig),  these rainbow sprinkles from Brave Tart were my first introduction to the DIY sprinkle.

I had some leftover bags of red, pink and white icing (I use my royal icing HERE). So I just fitted the bags of icing with size “3″ decorating tips, lined a baking tray with parchment paper, piped a whole bunch of mini hearts, and let them dry at room temperature overnight. That’s it. Homemade heart sprinkles.

Sprinkle these over ice cream, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, whatever. I dabbed a bit of light corn syrup on the back and stuck one on a marshmallow.

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I’ve decided that this is my new favorite way to decorate cookies, and I’ll just officially call it the “chaos method.” As in what I did back here. And kind of here. And now once again. Because you see, I often decorate cookies using only one consistency of icing, but you can always see the lines of icing if it’s too stiff. Some people don’t like that. So I also decorate cookies by flooding, but that means making a color of icing, then dividing it, then preparing a decorating bag with half of the icing, then thinning the other half, then preparing another bag for the thinned icing, then outlining and letting it set, then flooding and letting that set–forEVer–then piping details and… did I mention I have a two month old? And I’m tired? And my five-year old talks ALL the time and says “Mommy, where are you?” about twelve times an hour? And there are dust bunnies under my dining room chairs that scare my cats? Oh, and I found a used diaper under the couch the other day?

So now I’m about shortcuts and efficiency. I mean, in theory, at least. And this method uses only one consistency of icing, but takes advantage of the seeing-the-lines thing. I love it. Now sure, you can pretty much only use it for shaped cookies, not for cookies that need detail, but eh, I’m not all that into detail these days anyway. Too time-consuming.

To make these, prepare your cookie dough according to the recipe, cut out hearts (I used a 2- inch and a 3-inch heart cutter), bake and let cool. Prepare royal icing according to the recipe, divide and tint your preferred colors. I suggest Americolor Soft Gel Pastes for the food coloring, found online or in specialty stores. Red Red, Electric Pink and Bright White used here. Assemble disposable decorating bags with couplers and size “4″ or “5″ decorating tips, fill with the icing and close tightly with rubber bands. (Find the bags, couplers and tips in the craft store. For more tips on finding supplies, click HERE.) Pipe designs on cookies and let dry overnight before packaging or handling. (For basic cookie decorating how-tos, click HERE.)

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I think if I actually did celebrate Valentine’s Day in real life, this would be my speed. I’d have to throw some sort of joke in after the “we go together like…” sentiment. Sheesh, my husband sure is one lucky man.

Oh yeah, by the way… for way more than you wanted to know about food coloring pens, edible writers, whatever you want to call them, and how to draw on marshmallows, click HERE.

Some more pairs:

needle and thread

leg warmers and aerobics

peanut butter and jelly

tissues and sleeves

salt and pepper

guitar and pick

Eiffel Tower and Fifi

birds and bees

coffee and donuts

pig tails and ink

puddles and boots

geeks and Star Trek

typewriters and White-Out

Mikey and Life

white wine and motherhood

Mr. Rogers and sweaters

Can you think of any more?

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

Instead, you all get my hearts and pink and red and Xs and Os. Here are some goodies from the archives, in case you missed them the first or second time around.  As always, you can find the entire collection up there in the SEASONAL button.

warm and fuzzy cotton candy heart cookies

romance novel cupcakes

stamped conversation heart cookies

x and o cookie bites

marshmallows on a string

sparkly stained glass heart cookie pops

chocolate sandwich cookies

mod rose marshmallow pops

conversation heart cookie pops

kid-friendly candy heart pops

marshmallow subway art

Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!