Cream the margarine and sugar together then beat in the milk and vanilla
Sift in the remaining ingredients and mix to form a dough
Halve the dough and wrap each ball in clingfilm, flattening into discs before refrigerating for at least 30 minutes
Preheat the oven to gas 5 / 190C / 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
Flour a work surface then unwrap the dough. Let it sit at room temp for 10 minutes then roll or pat it out until it's 1/4" thich
Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut as many shapes as you can fit. I used a 3" cutter here. Keep rerolling the dough until you've cut as many shapes as possible. Out of the 2 doughs you should get 30 - 32 hearts or you can keep 1 wrapped dough in the freezer for another day
Put the cookies on the baking sheet and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until golden
Let cool on a wire rack while you make the royal icing - see my previously posted recipe for instructions
Split the icing into 3 or 4 bowls and colour it as you wish. Emmy wanted bright pink, Jack wanted 'Kermit' green and Michael wanted blue but pastel colours are the best effect for these!
Ice your cookies as instructed in my Royal Icing recipe and let set for a few hours, 3 - 5 hours is the normal time my icing takes
There are my gift ones in pastel pink for further decoration
Use an edible ink pen or a tube of writing icing to write your Valentines messages on the cookies. Have a cocktail stick handy to move the lines of writing icing into place if you make a mistake
Let set again then give away to the ones you love!
Vickys Royal Icing for Cookies - No Egg or Powdered Meringue https://cookpad.com/uk/recipes/554978-vickys-royal-icing-for-cookies-no-egg-or-powdered-meringue
