We don’t particularly celebrate Valentine’s Day in our family. Love should be celebrated every day, and it can be shown in so many different ways. A small act of kindness, is showing love towards someone, even if it means saying a few nice words to your spouse, and kids, a friend, a colleague or even a stranger. I am not big with showing affection but I show it in different ways, in the way I will care about someone. But having kids has brought out the affectionate part in me, where I love giving them and being showered with their hugs and kisses! Both of our kids are very loving and are all about the hugs which is so important in this world, where we are surrounded by much hatred, anger, and angst in people.
The kids love celebrating V-Day and always come home with the most adorable handmade crafts from school for us and it is the cutest melt-in-your-heart ever moment! They exchange valentines at school as well, which gets them all excited to do something different apart from studying and having a regular curriculum otherwise! The best part leading up to V-Day is the time we spend together baking cute heart desserts, or making chocolate heart waffles (coming next! ), or simply chocolate chip cookies with heart sprinkles on the top or the pink M&Ms. The weather is cold, rainy in February, and baking with kids is one of the fun ways to spend time with them.
Last year I wanted to make heart shaped Ice cream sandwiches, which were a complete failure haha! This year I made these adorable heart shaped sandwich shortbreads, made with all purpose flour, beet powder, freeze dried raspberry powder, and raw cacao powder. My kids helped me with making the heart shapes for the cookies. The cookies turned out super delicious! You cannot taste the beet at all, and my kids loved eating the cookies by itself! The buttercream is made with our Raspberry and Chocolate Jam, but you could simply use store bought raspberry jam. I sandwiched the cookies together with the Raspberry and Chocolate Buttercream, and glued tiny sprinkle hearts on the top of the cookie with the buttercream. The kids loved the cookies, and even took them to school, to share with their friends!
I bought the organic beet powder from Amazon, from here, but you could get it from a health food store as well.
Celebrate love every day, love one another, spread cheer and laughter. Let us celebrate Valentine’s Day every day!
Much love,
Amisha xo
Ingredients
- Raw Cacao and Beet ShortBread Hearts:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup raw cacao powder
- ¼ cup organic beet powder
- 2 tbsp freeze dried raspberry powder(Freeze dried raspberries available at Trader Joes)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 stick butter at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon Raspberry Extract
- Buttercream icing:
- 1/2 stick butter at room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Raspberry Extract
- 3 tablespoons Raspberry and Chocolate Jam (You can use store bought raspberry jam as well)
Instructions
- Cacao-Beet Shortbread:
- 1. In a medium bowl, add in the all purpose flour, raw cacao powder, beet powder, strawberry powder and salt. Whisk to blend well. If needed, strain through a strainer to evenly distribute the dry mixture.
- 2. In a mixer bowl, add in the butter and sugar, mix till well blended for about 1 minute. Add in the vanilla and raspberry extract. Blend again. Add in the dry mixture, mix again until incorporated.
- 3. In a plastic sheet or saran wrap, add in the dough and cover it and shape it into a disk about 1 inch thick. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour atleast.
- 4. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- 5. Remove from the fridge, and roll out the dough on a floured surface into 1/2 cm thick. Cut out whatever shape you want with cutters. Place on a baking sheet with parchment paper, and into the oven for about 11 minutes.
- 6. Remove from the oven and let cool.
- For the Buttercream icing:
- 7. In a medium bowl, add in the butter, and whip it with a hand mixer for 1 minute. Add in the powdered sugar and slowly mix it so that the sugar does not spread everywhere! Increase the speed gradually to medium to mix the sugar with the butter for 1 minute. Add in the jam and extract and mix until well blended.
- 8. In a ziplock bag with a Wilton 221 star tip inserted, add in the buttercream into the bag, twist and close it tight. Push the buttercream down, and pipe them in half the cookies, after turning them upside down. Press the top of the cookie onto the piped cookie, and its ready to eat!
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