little heart shaped sugar cubes

  In my single girl days, I was always one of those who professed my hatred of Valentine’s Day.  It was the pose of a girl much too cool to care about such things (ha!), and insurance for when I was single on the dreaded day.  It’s a cheesy holiday anyway!

  When you get married, you end up on the other side of the spectrum.  You still think it’s a cheesy holiday, but after you’ve been married for a few years, a little romance doesn’t sound all that bad to you.  Flowers?  Chocolate? Bring it, honey.  But being married doesn’t make it any more likely that you’ll be swept off your feet.  The thing is, husbands are still guys.  (My husband once brought me a dead plant on V-day. Really.  #husbandshaming)  And if you have the mythical unicorn of a husband who does this sort of thing, you should never tell anyone, or risk being pelted with supermarket flowers.

  But once you have a kid, it all changes. Valentine’s day becomes about little candy hearts and paper valentines with kitties on them again.  You get to indulge in all the chocolate and crafts without any shame, for you are teaching your child how to express their love.  But moms, do the future generations of women a favor, and do these with your little boys, too.

supplies:

• sugar
• red food coloring
• water
• small heart shaped cookie cutter

  I started by mixing my sugar and food coloring together in a blender.   I wanted my sugar to be very evenly colored ( I can be a little particular). But you can skip this and mix it all together with the water if you want.

  For my light pink hearts I used 1 drop of food coloring per 1 cup of sugar; the dark pink I increased it to 3 drops.  The sugar looks a LOT lighter before you add the water to it.  Add 2 or 3 droppers of water to the sugar and mix it together.  Get all the clumps out. Add water a little at a time until it looks like wet sand. Use your hands to mix it together if it’s easier.

You’ll know it’s ready when you can squeeze it in your hand and it stays together.

Put your sugar onto a cutting board or some parchment paper.  Squeeze it together and flatten it with your hands.  I found this works better than a rolling pin.  My sugar cracked when I did it that way.  Use your cookie cutter to cut out heart shapes.  Keep remolding and cutting until you have used all your sugar.

Let air dry for a few hours or overnight, then share.