Valentines Day is this weekend, friends. Instead of doing a formal gift guide, I’ll instead leave you with the ultimate Paleo Sugar Cookie recipe and the best royal icing recipe there is. My sister is a professional baker and she whipped these cookies up for the kids to decorate so get ready for all the sprinkles, all the extra icing and the sugar cookie of dreams.

I’ve made it my mission to spend more intentional time with the kids this year. After being around them all day every day for nearly an entire year, I started to just be in their vicinity without ever really engaging with them on purpose and undistracted. That’s not the mom I want to be. Even in just 15 minutes of one-on-one time filled with silly jokes and questions and eye contact, their tanks are filled up.
If I had to rank one-on-one activities from favorite to least favorite, imagination play and things like tag are on the verrryyy bottom, lego building and crafts are near the top and baking and cookie decorating take the cake (pun intended, thank you very much.)

If baking with your kids makes you too stressed, you can turn on a podcast and do all of it ahead of time. Make all the icing, set up the table with a giant roll of paper as the table cloth (bonus points- they can color between decorating) and you’re all set for a Valentines Cookie Date.

If you’re more of a “the memories are in the messes” type of person (which, to be honest, I am in this instance and this instance only) then let your kids help with every step of the process. Pre-measuring things and adding them to bowls to let them simply dump ingredients in is a step you’ll be glad you made. Trust me.

You can find the paleo frosting recipe and more tips for the cookies here via Sweet Laurel. Now, on to the icing recipe from my sister, Brooke. (Be sure to keep an eye on her page for a behind the scenes of decorating cookie orders in coming weeks!)

This recipe is the baseline and its up to you to decide if and how you’re going to add color. It’s best to separate portions of the icing into bowls to mix color smoothly-be sure to go slow and small here! You’d be shocked at how pigmented food coloring is. If you want a pastel, pale color even half a drop will do the trick.

Happy baking, friends! If you need me, I’ll be eating all the unfrosted sweet laurel cookies I can get my hands on.