Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies

I baked these cookies Friday afternoon knowing that time would be a factor in my icing process (which still didn't allow me enough time for things to dry the way I wanted them to, oh well).
I use the almond sugar cookie recipe from Bake at 350.

I also made a banana cream pie that afternoon...
I'd much rather roll out sugar cookie dough than pie crust.
I hate rolling out pie crust!

The dishes aren't my favorite part either.
I'd rather eat pie.

I just made a basic powdered sugar/water/vanilla icing, but I'm going to pick up some meringue powder before I make my next batch. And I went really light on the gel-paste coloring, but the tiniest bit of that stuff goes a really long way, and I should have used even less than what I did for a not-so-bright/more-pastel color.

I tried using #2 #3 and #5 tips (shoved into the corner of a plastic baggie) for piping around the cookies, and thought the larger were easier to work with, but the #2 looks better after you've flooded the icing. (*noted for next time)

I put a dollop of icing on the cookie and spread it to the sides (and popped air bubbles) with a toothpick. I have squeeze bottles, but didn't want to deal with filling them (plus it's one more thing to clean).

After they were dry (well, almost dry...I didn't have a whole 24 hours to wait), we stamped "conversations" onto the cookies with gel-paste food coloring on a damp paper towel (while sipping wine). I got the idea from Martha, and unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the finished product.

OK, I did take one picture of a cookie that Cory made (after I caught my breath from laughing so hard).
It was supposed to be like one of those super cheezy candies from those little boxes/Facebook joke...

Ha!
Then I wrapped a few bags up all pretty for Cupid to deliver.

I hope everyone had a super sweet Valentine's Day!