Love Bug Sugar Cookies

The ultimate Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies! These adorable heart shaped frosted sugar cookies are frosted with pink icing and decorated with yogurt covered pretzels to create these super-sweet Love Bugs! Fantastic for a Valentine’s Day classroom snack and amazing for all of the “love bugs” in your life!

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The BEST Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies recipe!

To this day, when I think of Valentine’s Day, I think of my days in high school baking up these heart shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting – ALWAYS!!  This year, I wanted to resurrect this warm memory by making Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies, with a bit more fun attached.  That’s how these adorable Love Bug Frosted Sugar Cookies came to be!

Back in October I made a chocolate version of these cute cookies – Chocolate Sugar Cookie Spiders.  Those spiders were so fun (and delicious!) that I wanted to create a Valentine’s Day version of these adorable treats!  Instead of using a chocolate sugar cookie, I used a basic sugar cookie dough and a heart-shaped cookie cutter, and went to work.

Should I refrigerate sugar cookie dough?

Yes, chilling sugar cookie dough before rolling and cutting is critical in achieving uniform shapes. Un-chilled dough is likely to be sticky when rolling out.

After rolling out and baking the sugar cookie hearts, I let them cool completely.  This is a step you can do in advance to frosting the cookies.  I actually rolled out and baked the cookies the night before I frosted them, which worked really well.

How do you make frosting for frosted sugar cookies?

From here, I mixed my frosting, using a basic butter cream frosting recipe (below.)  I tinted the frosting with pink food coloring, and spread a thin layer of frosting on the cookies for a base.  

Then, using a grass-tip (#233 tip) and piping bag, I added the top “hair-like” frosting.  Adding a couple candy eyes and yogurt covered pretzels (cut in half) as legs, brings the cuteness level up several notches for these adorable Love Bug cookies!

What flavoring should I use for frosted sugar cookies?

I  frosted sugar cookie is not complete without flavoring. This recipe calls for almond extract. If you don’t prefer almond extract (I know some people don’t), simply omit the almond extract and replace it with vanilla extract.  (Do 2 tsp. vanilla instead of 1 1/2 vanilla, and 1/2 almond extract.)

Looking for more Valentine’s Day treats? Check out some of my other Valentine’s Day recipes:

Red Velvet Sheet Cake

Chocolate Covered Cherry No Bake Cheesecake Bars

Heart Shaped Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Red Velvet Donuts

Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

Black Forest Brownie Bites

Here’s the recipe for these adorable Love Bug Frosted Sugar Cookies:

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Love Bug Sugar Cookies

Erin Indahl-Fink

These adorable heart shaped sugar cookies are frosted with pink icing and decorated with yogurt covered pretzels to create these super-sweet Love Bugs! The perfect Valentine’s Day treat!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course Uncategorized

Cuisine American

Servings 24 cookies

Calories 6285 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Sugar Cookie Dough:

• 2 sticks butter 1 cup, room temperature
• 1 1/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 3 c. all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Frosting:

• 2 sticks 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 4 c. powdered sugar
• 2-3 Tbsp. milk
• Pink food coloring

Decorations:

• Candy eye balls
• Yogurt covered pretzels

Instructions

 

• [b]For the cookie dough:[/b] With a stand or hand mixer, cream together the butter and granulated sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and mix until combined.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients (about 1 cup at a time) to the wet ingredients, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Dough will be thick. On a piece of plastic wrap, turn out the dough, shape into a disk, cover with the wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour, or overnight.
• On a piece of waxed paper, unwrap the chilled dough, and roll out to approximately 1/4" thickness. Cut with a heart shaped cookie cutter. Place on lined baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mat). Bake for approximately 9-11 minutes, until just set. Don’t let the cookies overly brown, or they will become dry and brittle. Let the cookies cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• [b]Frosting:[/b] With a hand or stand mixer, cream the room temperature butter along with the vanilla and almond extract. Gradually begin adding the powdered sugar one cup at a time, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl. As the frosting gets stiffer, and the milk one Tbsp. at a time. Add the food coloring and mix until desired color is met.
• [b]Decorating the cookies:[/b] On the cooled cookies, spread a thin base layer of frosting with a knife or decorating spatula. Using a piping bag fitted with a grass tip (#233), decorate the cookies, by squeezing a bit of frosting and pulling up to create a "hair" like effect. Lastly, decorate with 2 candy eyes and 2 pretzels, cut in half) for the legs.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 6285kcalCarbohydrates: 1137gProtein: 45gFat: 189gSaturated Fat: 118gCholesterol: 492mgSodium: 3544mgSugar: 799g

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

The cookie dough and frosting recipes were adapted in part from the cookbook Better Homes and Gardens: Baking.  You can purchase this cookbook here.

These sweet little Love Bug cookies have not only brought joy to my family, but they’ve also brought back those memories of baking dozens and dozens of cookies with my friends back in high school.  Years ago, these cookies brought such joy to many sweethearts, and I hope they bring the same joy to you this Valentine’s Day!  Love ~Erin