The Martha Stewart Blog : Blog Archive Happy Valentine's Day 2026

February 14, 2026

Happy Valentine's Day 2026

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you.

I'm busy getting ready for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, but there's still time to make something homemade and meaningful to give as gifts for St. Valentine's Day. Every year, I like to bake lots of heart shaped sugar cookies. I prepare the dough and royal icing, cut out the shapes, bake, and decorate them in pink and white using a process I devised that's easy and fun. It's the four Ds - dipping, dripping, decorating, and drying.

Enjoy these photos and video from my Valentine's Day cookie baking process a few years ago.

: The first step is to gather all the ingredients – here are all the decorating ingredients and my giant heart-shaped cookie cutters. I have had these cutters for years.

: And then make your favorite sugar cookie dough. I have many delicious sugar cookie recipes in my books.

: Once it’s ready, I put it on a piece of plastic wrap and roll out the dough in two batches, so it’s easier to manage.

: After rolling, they are completely wrapped and chilled for at least 30-minutes – mine were chilled overnight. Chilled dough will help retain the shape of the cookies; soft, warm dough tends to lose its shape when cut and moved.

: The next morning, the doughs are perfect. They get really hard, but they roll out so beautifully.

: Here they are about to go into the oven. It’s such a treat for me to bake, it’s become an annual tradition. These cookies are baked at 400-degrees Fahrenheit for 10-minutes.

: Here are some batches already cooling – all perfectly browned. The cookies are about 1/8-inch thick.

: I made large and small cookies – some with decorative edges and some left smooth.

: My process for decorating sugar cookies involves the four “Ds” – dipping, dripping, decorating, and drying. Sugar cookies are delicious any time on their own, but they also make ideal holiday cookies when decorated with royal icing. I used royal icing made from confectioner’s sugar, meringue from my own egg whites, food coloring, water, and then hand-dipped each cookie very carefully. I do this instead of damming and flooding, which is a much more precise method.

: Carefully dip the cookie into the icing. and let the excess drip.

: I dipped just the top of the cookie, so each one looks smooth and perfect. The frosting has to be exactly the right consistency to dip the cookies satisfactorily. And remove them very carefully, letting the excess drip. Once they are flat, the icing will level out into a perfect surface for decorating.

: While the white frosting is still wet, I use pink icing on top. I make horizontal lines first across the cookie.

: Do this in any direction, making sure the lines are evenly spaced.

: Then, using the tip of a bamboo skewer, I just pull the frosting down from the top to the bottom of the cookie making this Napoleonic design. It is called this because the same design is seen on Napoleon pastries.