Black-Outlined Ombre Hearts

Sometimes simple is the best. I love a black-outlined cookie, I love hearts, and I love these cookies. In fact, I loved them so much that I forgot to take out my "real" camera to take pictures. These are from my phone since I was in definite OVERgram mode with these babies.

black-outlined ombre heart cookies in turquoise

Not only are these cookies cute, they benefited two causes.

black-outlined ombre heart cookies in poppy ♥ bakeat350.net

1. Julie from The Little Kitchen is a big supporter of Cookies for Kids Cancer. She's a rock star for rallying bloggers to support this cause every year. This is the first Valentine event and I think you couldn't ask for a more fitting tie-in.

Bloggers are encouraged to bake and feature their creations on their blogs to raise awareness of the campaign.

If you'd like to donate, click here! The goal is to raise $3,000 through this drive. You might recognize the sponsors, like Dixie Crystals (sister of Imperial Sugar), and Land O' Lakes!

black-outlined ombre heart cookies in turquoise ♥ bakeat350.net

2. The actual cookies went to a bake sale our parish youth group was putting on to raise money for Save the Storks. See? These cookies really did double duty.

I bagged the cookies up two per bag...they looked so cute. I'm LOVING my heat-sealer these days. I think they look prettier in there than in a baggie. The only downfall is that you need scissors to open the package. My apologies to the people who bought those cookies at the bake sale and had a hard time ripping into them. :)

black-outlined ombre heart cookies in poppy

A few details on the cookies:

I used this cookie recipe and rolled them out to 3/8" thickness. The heart cutter was about 2 inches.
For the outline, I used AmeriColor Super Black. There's no need to add cocoa or a mix of other colors when using Super Black. It's perfect and you won't need a ton of it.
I used a #3 tip for a nice thick outline.
It's always a good idea to let black outlines dry for a bit before filling. I generally wait an hour or more.

black-outlined ombre heart cookies, bagged 2x2 for a bake sale ♥ bakeat350.net

The ombre shades were made with AmeriColor Turquoise and ProGel Poppy.
I divided the royal icing into cups and bowls and tinted each a slightly different shade.
Once I had the shades I wanted, I thinned the icing with water, a bit at a time until a ribbon of icing dropped back on itself disappeared in a count of one-thousand-one. one-thousand-two.
Let the icing rest a bit cover with a damp dishtowel.
Transfer the thinned icing to squeeze bottles or icing bags with the tips snipped (that's what I did...I didn't want to clean 12 squeeze bottles).
NOTE: use piping bags, not baggies.
Fill the outlines, use a toothpick to guide to edges and pop large air bubbles.